Sino-Swiss Business Forum Highlights 'Innovation, Trust, and Digitalization'

Swiss businesses and China authorities both see growing potential for trade and business partnership, especially in the field of innovation.

The 2026 Sino-Swiss Business Forum held yesterday in Shanghai brought together over 300 executives, business representatives, and government officials, highlighting the foundation for mutual partnership.

Marking the 30th anniversary of SwissCham (Swiss Chamber of Commerce) Shanghai, the event was themed "Innovation, Trust, and Digitalization".

Representatives of Chinese and Swiss businesses also visited the experiential gallery during the forum, where latest technologies, products and solutions were showcased.

The exclusive government and corporate dialogue session brought together about two dozen business representatives and government officials. They exchanged ideas over future-oriented economic cooperation between Swiss businesses and the local government.

Chen Hao, deputy director of the Shanghai Commerce Commission, stressed the city's continuous encouragement for foreign businesses to become fully integrated into the industry value chain, offer localized solutions and step up the transformation of innovation into real-world applications.

Raphael Zumsteg-Yuan, chairman of SwissCham China, delivered the opening remarks, and highlighted the importance of the forum where industry and business leaders, government representatives, and high-level delegations come together to foster dialogue, innovation, and strategic partnerships.

In addition to the Swiss Chamber of Commerce's 30th anniversary, this year may also bring another important milestone, as the free trade agreement between Switzerland and China is likely to be finalized, he noted.

Jonas Eberle, president of SwissCham China Shanghai Chapter, said the forum serves as a constructive dialogue platform, creating a triple-win for the government, businesses and the chamber.

Xie Weisi, the Shanghai director of the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network, delivered the keynote speech "Sino Swiss Bilateral Trade & Development Strategies of Swiss Enterprises in China".

Belimo China's CESIM House, the Swiss HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) giant's flagship facility in China, opened at Shanghai's Xinzhuang Industrial Park in early 2025.

Based on its existing core product lines of actuators, control valves, sensors and meters, the new China headquarters has expanded to seven production lines from the original four and output has increased by 50 percent.

With strong support from the Xinzhuang Industrial Area Administration, Belimo, a low-carbon demonstration benchmark, is committed to the construction of zero-carbon parks.

It provides replicable and scalable integrated solutions of intelligent HVAC control and low-carbon development to support energy conservation and carbon reduction for regional manufacturing industries and industrial parks.

Wilhelm Cheng, managing director China at Belimo Holding, believes industries, including artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, green buildings, energy-efficient retrofits, smart manufacturing and advanced industrial infrastructure, have immense development potential. Belimo will keep a close strategic focus on these key sectors.

"As China's economy shifts from high-speed growth to high-quality development, Belimo will continue to monitor the development directions and application trends of domestic high-quality growth industries and optimize its professional solutions accordingly."

Swiss companies are known for their long-term mindset and deep technological expertise, while China's strengths lie in market speed and innovation in real-world applications, he pointed out.

Through the SwissCham network and its member ecosystem, Cheng also noted that Chinese customers will gain greater access to advanced Swiss technologies, including smart building controls, energy-efficient data center solutions, precision automation, and low-carbon sustainable technologies.