"China-Germany SMEs Forum" was co-held by ICBC and China-Germany Economic Advisory Committee in Hefei of Anhui Province on October 30, 2015. Mr. Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of ICBC, Mr. Chen Shulong, member of Standing Committee and Vice Governor of Anhui and Mr. Liu Dianxun, Deputy Chief of China Investment Promotion Agency of Ministry of Commerce of People's Republic of China attended and addressed the forum. 55 enterprises and over 100 business leaders from China and Germany gathered to discuss the cooperation of China-Germany SMEs.

The forum, as one of activities under the framework of China-Germany Economic Advisory Committee, was held during Merkel’s visit to China, aiming at systematically introducing investment opportunities in China and Germany, promoting the mutual understanding and cooperation of SMEs from two countries and establishing a multi-level interaction system of "government-bank-enterprise" amid deepening China-Germany economic relationship in recent years.

Chairman Jiang Jianqing of ICBC said in his speech that China-Germany economic and trade relations has played a guiding role in relationship between China and EU, with bilateral trade accounting for 30% of China-EU trade, 40% of technologies introduced by China from EU came from Germany and Germany's investment in China is one quarter of EU's investment in China. China and Germany are economically complementary and SMEs of both sides have great potential for cooperation. In recent years, ICBC has actively supported the development of emerging areas including "Made in China 2025", accelerated building of institutions specialized in micro and small enterprise banking and innovation of service modes and enhanced the facilitation and availability of financing of micro and small enterprises. As at the end of this September, ICBC has served as many as 220,000 SMEs, up 32,000 year on year; the loan balance of SMEs reached RMB1,860 billion, up RMB140 billion or 8% over the year beginning, markedly higher than the average increase of other loan balances in the same period. ICBC topped peers in both balance and increase of loans to SMEs. China-Germany SME Forum initiated by ICBC is a powerful and necessary complement to the cooperation of large enterprises of China-Germany Economic Advisory Committee, which would help both countries achieve substantial progress in their business cooperation. ICBC will keep on closely following customers, stimulate investment with financial services by leveraging its constantly improving global exposures, thereby contributing its due share to the development of China-Germany SMEs.

Vice Governor Chen Shulong of Anhui stated in his speech that Anhui boasts convenient transportation, strong education and scientific capabilities and comprehensive industrial system. Meanwhile, Anhui, in recent years, has actively streamlined administration and delegated more powers to lower-level governments and to society, launched negative list system of market access and promoted investment and trade facilitation to tap more foreign investment potential. Germany is the largest investment source and trade partner of Anhui. The government of Anhui province will cultivate favorable environment and conditions to support and guarantee the exchanges and win-win development of Chinese and German enterprises.

In the following sub-forums, representatives from the business and financial communities of the two countries conducted in-depth discussion on "Chinese enterprises' investment in Germany" and "German enterprises' investment in China", especially on how Chinese SMEs go global by implementing cross-border M&A, how "Made in China 2015" and German "Industry 4.0" are effectively combined to promote the win-win in the manufacturing industry in both countries. These topics became hot issues in the forum. Enterprises also signed a series of important business and investment cooperation agreements during the forum. As the sponsor of the forum, ICBC systematically introduced the diversified financial services it provided to support SME development and successful cases in recent years and expressed that it would constantly step up China-Germany SME cooperation and support going-global drive of Chinese manufacturers by leveraging its advantages and rich experiences from global exposures.