Samenwerking tussen midden- en kleinbedrijf EU en China (en) - Montesquieu Instituut

On 28 September 2011, the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission hosted an informal meeting with a Chinese delegation led by the Torch High Technology Development Centre of China's Ministry of Science and Technology to explore scope for future cooperation in support of SME internationalisation through clusters.

Under the chairmanship of Mr. Didier Herbert, Acting Director of the Coordination, Planning and International Affairs Directorate at DG Enterprise and Industry, this meeting was organised in liaison with the EU Project Innovation Centre of Chengdu (China). "This meeting is a good opportunity to explore how closer cooperation between the EU and China could be organised in the future. We aim at making a more strategic use of clusters and business networks to support the internationalisation of European SMEs in markets outside Europe, especially in emerging industries where cluster cooperation would have the highest impact ", said the chairman.

This view was shared by Mr. Zhang Zhihong, Executive Deputy Director General of the Torch High Technology Development Centre, who expressed strong interest to intensify the policy dialogue on cluster policies and to facilitate SME cooperation through clusters with the EU.

"There are today 88 national high-tech zones in China that have the features of high-tech industrial clusters established at government level within a specific geographic area. The objective of our visit is to learn from EU experience how to better organise cluster initiatives and create better links with international partners, particularly for those firms active in the fields of emerging industries, creative industries, clean tech and renewable energy", he said.

Mr. Reinhard Büscher, Head of Unit for Support for Industrial Innovation at DG Enterprise and Industry, welcomed this proposal for closer cluster cooperation, in particular for the benefit of SMEs. The policy dialogue could best be organised within the framework of existing fora, institutions and agreements in the different policy fields relevant for clusters, such as industrial cooperation, RTD cooperation and cultural cooperation. "Excellence of cluster management is key to successful clusters, and cluster cooperation should be facilitated primarily by the cluster organisations themselves", he underlined. In this respect, he offered to organise a joint workshop on cluster benchmarking and evaluation methodologies as well as the possibility of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Chinese partners and the European Cluster Collaboration Platform, which is an initiative funded by DG Enterprise and Industry, following the examples of MoUs already signed with other partner countries. Furthermore, he offered the possibility of co-organising specific matchmaking events promoting closer cluster cooperation in support of SME internationalisation in specific fields of mutual interest to be identified.

Representatives from other European Commission services complemented this exchange with their views on promoting transnational cluster cooperation. Hughes Becquart from DG Education and Culture reported on the EU-China Year of intercultural Dialogue in 2012 that would offer great scope for cluster cooperation in the field of cultural and creative industries, and Dimitri Corpakis from DG Research and Innovation presented interesting results from the Regions of Knowledge initiative promoting research-driven clusters. Mario Catizzone, also from DG Research and Innovation, described the state of play of the science and technology cooperation initiated with China.

Whereas no formal conclusions were drawn, a consensus emerged that closer international cluster cooperation between the EU and China would offer mutual benefits, in particular for better supporting SME internationalisation, that should be better explored in the future.

More information

Downloads :

• - 

  Agenda (58 KB)
• - 

  List of participants (11 KB)