Chinese and Swiss observers expect the upgraded Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries to benefit a wider range of industries as the two sides jointly announced the completion of the last round of negotiations in Bern on Aug 20.
Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and Guy Parmelin, president of the Swiss Confederation and head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, jointly announced the completion of the negotiations and signed a memorandum of understanding in the Swiss capital on Aug 20.
Wang said China and Switzerland launched negotiations on upgrading the FTA in September 2024, and successfully concluded the negotiations after five rounds of consultations through joint efforts.
The two sides have committed to a higher level of two-way opening up in multiple areas, including goods, services, investment and rules, which will create new opportunities for bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Wang noted.
Parmelin said the successful upgrade of the agreement marks another important milestone in the development of bilateral relations and will provide a more stable, transparent and predictable institutional framework for the long-term development of businesses in both countries.
Observers said they are expecting the upgraded FTA to benefit a wider range of Swiss and Chinese industries with some sectors likely to see particularly great boost.
"This change in our agreement entails a great progress and improvement for many of our companies in different sectors. Now, our overall trade is very important, but what strikes me is that in certain sectors it is of high importance to both countries," said Jean-Jacques de Dardel, former Swiss ambassador to China.
A spokeswoman for China's Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday that in terms of trade in goods, the share of imports subject to zero tariff treatment will exceed 99 percent for both countries under the upgraded FTA.
"[For] some sectors, the change is quite big. For instance, the watch products. In the existing FTA, only 1 percent of watch products enjoy the duty-free [treatment]. However, with the new FTA or the optimized FTA, it will go to 100 percent. I mean, all watch products would enjoy the duty-free [treatment]," said Meng Ling, partner in China Integrated Co, Ltd.
Observers on upgraded China-Switzerland FTA
China's national initiative to develop computing power networks will create a great opportunity for private investment, said industry insiders.
China's computing power networks are expected to receive 4 trillion yuan (about 595.2 billion U.S. dollars) in new direct investment during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), according to the country's top economic planner.
As computing power development relies mainly on enterprise investment, such development will create enormous room for private investment, said the National Development and Reform Commission
"It is initiated by the government, which at least sends a signal that it is a definite arena, so private capital is willing to enter this field despite its high technical barriers," said Liu Yi, senior vice president of the Isoftstone Information Technology.
Chinese internet giants are racing to build AI computing centers. Tencent's Q2 capital expenditure hit 52.8 billion yuan, up 176 percent year on year, largely going to data centers, GPU servers, and AI clusters. Industry experts say flagship AI models are now being upgraded monthly, or even weekly, highlighting the breakneck pace of China's AI race.
"Back in the second half of last year, people were generally hoping to iterate on models every three months. Now, a new model is being released every four to six weeks, and that in itself poses a considerable challenge in terms of computing power," said Feng Wen, head of open platform of the MiniMax.
"Participating in the construction of the national 'Six Networks' initiative is also an opportunity for enterprises," said Liu Feng, general manager of the Smart Industries Group under the Tencent.
China is mulling massive investment in a "Six Networks" initiative as the country works to expand domestic demand and stabilize economic growth.
These six networks comprise water networks, new-type power grids, computing power networks, next-generation communication networks, urban underground pipeline networks and logistics networks. "I think we should not have the mindset of short-term gains or the monetization of resources. Instead, we should have the mindset of promoting the long-term progress and the closed-loop development of the industry. We should build and plan these resources with the ultimate goal in mind," said Sun Chuqian, head of strategic development with Qinneng Technology.
"Throughout the entire 15th Five-Year Plan period, for intelligence computing centers, whether they are token factories, medium-sized or ultra-large-scale facilities, or even gigawatt-level ones, there will be a period of rapid growth," said Zhang Chen, deputy general manager of the Market Development Division under the China Power Engineering Consulting Group.
China's massive computing power building to create opportunity for private investment
