The new Chinese consul in Barcelona, Hu Aimin, is confident that the investment from the Chery automobile company will finally reach Catalonia. The diplomat - in a meeting with the press - explained yesterday that the process “is not quick” and requires time.
Aimin recalled that the Minister of Business, Roger Torrent, already had a meeting with Chery in China. In recent years all attempts to have a Chinese car manufacturer set up shop in Catalonia have failed. It happened in 2010 when the arrival of Chery itself was attempted, in 2011 with Brilliance, in 2017 with Thunder Power and last year with GWM.
The possible assembly of cars from the Chinese brand comes just as the European Union threatens to increase tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to protect the continent's industry after an investigation it has launched. “Cooperation with China has many benefits,” said the consul. The EU measure “does not correspond to the interests of any party,” and he opted to reduce discrepancies through dialogue, since he considers China to be a reliable and indispensable partner for the EU to solve the problems facing Europe.
The diplomat announced a business meeting for the month of January in Barcelona. The consul highlighted that “the Chinese company Huayi Compressor acquired the local company Cubigel” and the collaboration of Chinese companies with Idiada. “Air China has restored direct flights from Beijing to Barcelona and Shenzhen Airlines has launched new direct flights from Shenzhen to Barcelona,” he explained. There are currently five direct flights each week connecting China and Catalonia, although the consul hopes there will be more next year. “From January to October of this year, more than 70,000 Chinese tourists visited Barcelona and the number of Chinese students in Catalonia reached almost 4,000,” he added.
The elimination of the requirement to have a visa to be able to visit China for a maximum of 15 days to do business or tourism can boost economic activity. Spain is one of the six countries for which the visa requirement has been eliminated a few days ago. However, a visa is still required for Chinese visitors arriving in Spain.
The consul also regretted that the rating agency Moody's Investors Service recently downgraded its outlook on China's sovereign credit rating.
