China, Germany achieve pragmatic results in trade cooperation during Merz's visit: spokeswoman

China and Germany have achieved positive and pragmatic outcomes in the economic and trade sector during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to China, He Yongqian, spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday.

She made the statement at a press conference in Beijing in response to a media query about the outcomes of Merz's official visit to China from Wednesday to Thursday.

"China and Germany have engaged in in-depth exchanges in the economic and trade sector, achieving positive and pragmatic outcomes. When meeting with Chancellor Merz, President Xi Jinping said that the two countries should be innovative partners featuring openness and mutual benefit, form greater synergy between their development strategies, and promote dialogue and cooperation in cutting-edge sectors like artificial intelligence. This has specified the way forward for further deepening economic and trade cooperation between China and Germany," said the spokeswoman.

During the visit, enterprises from both countries signed more than 10 business agreements covering industries such as automobiles, machinery, energy, logistics and finance, she said.

"This year marks the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. China's continued efforts to promote high-quality development and expand high-standard opening up have brought broad opportunities for economic and trade cooperation with Germany. The Ministry of Commerce will work with the German side to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two countries and strengthen dialogue on economic and trade policies. We will effectively leverage mechanisms and platforms like the China-Germany economic and trade joint committee and the China-Germany economic advisory committee to broaden areas of cooperation and promote healthy and stable development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, continuously producing new outcomes," He said.

Merz arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for the two-day visit to China, his first since taking office last May. He's the first foreign leader that China has received in the Year of the Horse. Xi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang met and had talks with Merz on Wednesday, respectively.

China, Germany achieve pragmatic results in trade cooperation during Merz's visit: spokeswoman

China has seen strong growth momentum in eight emerging and nine future industries, with about 1.13 million companies established in these sectors in 2025, an increase of 9.9 percent year on year, official data showed on Thursday.

Among these, some cutting-edge fields such as humanoid robots, civil aviation and generative artificial intelligence witnessed notable growth, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation.

China registered nearly 25.75 million newly established market entities last year, including 9.5 million enterprises and 16.19 million self-employed businesses, the administration said.

Consumer-related sectors also showed promise. The number of entities involved in intelligent consumer equipment manufacturing reached approximately 78,000 in 2025, with around 5,000 newly established.

The cultural tourism sector added 3.3 million new enterprises, up 12.2 percent year on year, while sectors related to the silver economy saw the addition of roughly 68,000 enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 17.1 percent.

Market regulatory authorities will continue to refine market access and exit mechanisms, foster a fair competitive environment and optimize government services for businesses, thereby further stimulating the vitality of all types of market entities.

China reports roughly 1.13 mln new firms in emerging, future industries in 2025