China, Austria sign contracts worth 1.5 billion euros

Austria and China signed contracts worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in Beijing on April 8.

The contracts were signed by Austria’s largest-ever trade delegation to China, under the witness of the country’s President Alexander Van der Bellen, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, four federal ministers, as well as Chinese Ambassador to Austria Li Xiaosi.

Li introduced that the contracts cover a wide scope including more than 30 cooperation projects in infrastructure, finance, art, culture, education and health.

In recent years, Austria has been hoping to seize opportunities coinciding with China’s development and enhance cooperation, especially economic collaboration, Li said.

“We are helping those European investors who are interested in the Chinese capital market to achieve their aspirations,” said Harald Staudinger, founding partner of the asset management company ASPOMA Asset Management based in Austria.

In addition, both countries have achieved fruitful results in academic and cultural cooperation. “China has made remarkable progress in the regard of scientific development over the last decade,” said Heinz Engl, president of the University of Vienna which has just signed a 5-year academic exchange program with China University of Political Science and Law.

Li Xiade, the Austrian Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna said that the world, faced with complex international relations, needs platforms of communication and mutual understanding. The Confucius Institute, the University of Vienna, and Chinese organizations should make further efforts to promote exchanges related to culture and history.