One of China's largest firms,Sany Heavy Industries, agreed on Jan. 29 to spend 100 million euros (US$131 million) The plant in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. German officials said it was one of the largest investment projects by a Chinese company in Europe and the biggest Chinese-built plant on the continent.
Sany intends to build a factory producing construction equipment as well as a research and development center and a training site.
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, said the project would create "hundreds of jobs" at a time when the country is in the throes of a deepening economic crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also resulted in other lucrative deals between major Chinese and German firms. Germany's ThyssenKrupp signed a deal to share with China part of the technology required to run the Transrapid magnetic-levitation train, which ThyssenKrupp builds with Siemens. In addition, German auto manufacturer Daimler signed a cooperation agreement with Chinese truck maker Foton.
Wen earlier put the level of bilateral trade with Germany, the world's biggest exporter, at $115 billion in 2008 and said he hoped that level could be maintained this year despite gloomy forecasts for the world's number three and four economies.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
