Youth entrepreneurs from Europe and China met over the weekend to discuss potential cooperation and share their experiences as upcoming business leaders.
Youth business leaders build cooperation by sharing experiences and ideas. |
The key words of the forum were understanding, creation and cooperation. Although the European and Chinese entrepreneurs gathered for the summit faced many different problems – lack of communication, tough monetary policy and environmental issues – they shared their start-up experiences, management skills and business ideas.
Many attendees gave presentations. As Chinese market enjoys huge potential, most European participants also wanted to find a Chinese partner and do business in China. But they also questioned the country's business environment and protection of European intellectual property.
Everybody writes topics they want to talk on paper. |
Zhang Heng, chief executive officer at Beijing Sanfo Outdoor Product Co., said he drew management strategies from his talks at the summit.
"European Union delegates emphasized paying attention to the environment and employees' happiness index," Zhang said. "That's very helpful for Chinese enterprises."
"I think the most important principle of cooperating with European entrepreneurs is communication," Zhang added. "Europeans speak in a very direct way, so if Chinese entrepreneurs have questions or difficulties cooperating, they can ask directly. Also, Chinese are very efficient, but Europeans are relatively slow. So I think that cooperation between European and Chinese businesses need a breaking-in period." he said.
Ruman Rachkov, one of the delegates, presents his company at the summit. |
Ruman Rachkov, CEO of game developer ThreeChess.com, said: "I have met a number of Chinese and European delegates and have found their thoughts and ideas very much different from business leaders in Bulgaria. Although some countries are geographically close to us, their thoughts are a world away," Ruman said. "Chinese enjoys huge online game market and we really want to cooperate with Chinese online game companies."
The EU-China Youth Leaders Summit, the last flagship event of the 2011 EU-China Year of Youth, was held from Oct. 20 to 24. It included seminars on such topics as young people in an aging society, world multi-polarity and the role of regional organizations.