Voith Group CEO Dirk Hoke said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to China marks a promising new phase for China-Germany business ties, highlighting Voith's deepening partnerships and ambitions in the country.
German technology giant Voith, a key supplier to China’s hydropower, papermaking and rail industries, joined Merz’s business delegation during his two-day visit from Wednesday to Thursday. With more than 30 years of operations in China, the company is now looking to further leverage its partnerships to expand globally.
Speaking to China Global Television Network (CGTN), Hoke praised the visit's atmosphere and outcomes.
"I was very positively surprised, first of all by the hospitality of the Chinese government side, but also to see that we had a very constructive discussion in Beijing and in Hangzhou. And what I also saw is that we have a mutual trust that we can develop collaboration much further than what we have done over the last years. So I believe it was a good beginning for a new phase of the relationship between China and Germany. And I'm strongly convinced that with what we have seen on the government side and the industrial side, there will be a very positive development in the next years based on the visit from Chancellor Merz this time," said Hoke.
Hoke acknowledged the rapid pace of change in China, calling it a proving ground for global competition.
"I think there were very humble discussions acknowledging the speed of change and transformation that we see in China. Competition is increasing, but it's also like a training center for the rest of the world, where we can see: if we can compete in China, we can compete anywhere in the world," he said.
Asked if China is a competing center, Hoke replied, "Yes, It's like really a training center. We also see that we need more local engineering, local R and D in order to respond faster to customer requests and to adapt to different market speeds. And China is definitely one of the fastest-changing markets. And we believe that we need to adapt to it much faster."
Hoke highlighted Voith’s long-standing presence in China and expressed confidence in the company’s future growth, pointing to decades of investment, deep local partnerships, and ambitions to further expand its footprint in China and beyond.
"We started first projects more than a hundred years ago on hydropower plants. We’re involved into major projects like Three Gorges and Wudongde. We have spent the last decades to build local entities and local factories. As you can see in Kunshan. It's like Voith paper city. We have more than 1,300 people working there in total. We have more than 2,300 employees today in China, but we believe this can grow much beyond these values. We have long lasting partnerships with CRRC on the railway business. We have a very good relationship with Shanghai Electric in our joint venture. So we built trust for partnerships. But we also have to acknowledge we can do better. We have to adapt faster to the new strategy of the 15th Five-Year strategy. And if we do so, we believe that it can be very prosperous for Chinese government and companies, but also for German companies like Voith to expand the business here, but also to expand business on a global basis," he said.
Chancellor Merz's visit opens new chapter in China-Germany ties: Voith CEO
