China-Belgium cooperation boosts job opportunities

Li Qian is a senior engineer in PEC, a Belgian company offering test and manufacturing solutions for energy storage devices. It’s the third time for her employer to recruit talents in the ChinaCareers job fair.

Li said the company has vacancies this year for mechanical, software and electronic engineer positions at both its headquarters in Belgium and branch in Shanghai, China.

“We want talents with multiple backgrounds, because proficiency in Chinese and professional ability are both required to do international business with Chinese,” Li said.

According to Zhang Dongqing, the cargo development manager at Liege Airport, the recent investment of Alibaba in Liege has encouraged more Belgian enterprises to develop Chinese markets, so more of their partners crave talents from China or are interested in working with China.

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, signed a memorandum of understanding with Belgium in December to establish its first European e-commerce trade hub in Liege with an initial investment of 75 million euros ($85 million).

The project is part of the China-Belgium trade cooperation. Among EU countries, Belgium is China’s sixth-largest trading partner, sixth-largest export market and seventh-largest source of imports.

Bilateral trade between the countries has exceeded $30 billion at its peak. By August 2018, Belgium set up 1,068 projects in China, with an actual investment of $1.94 billion, mainly in the chemical, pharmaceutical, electrical equipment and other industries.

Cao Zhongming, the Chinese ambassador to Belgium, believes China-Belgium cooperation contributes to economic development, creates jobs and brings tangible benefits to the local people.

China is carrying out a series of measures to boost opening-up, including further reducing the negative list for foreign investment and strengthening the protection of copyright.

“In the context of the current complex international situation, China and Belgium can strengthen communication and cooperation, making more contributions to the world,” Cao said on Wednesday in a conversation with students at the HEC Liege, the business school at the University of Liege.

Dong Yuwen and Chen Wenxin contributed to this story.