On the evening of March 15 local time, CeBIT 2015 opened in Hannover, Germany. China is a partner country of the Expo. Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China delivered a congratulatory video message to the Expo. Angela Merkel, German Chancellor attended the opening ceremony.
In his congratulatory message, Li Keqiang said that a new round of scientific and industrial revolution was on the rising, and that many countries had put forward their own development strategies. Based on China’s national conditions and development stage, the Chinese government has proposed “Made in China 2025” as a road-map for the development of China’s manufacturing industry in the next 10 years. There is growing potential and space for cooperation between China and Germany in the development and utilization of networking, digitalization, intelligence and other technologies, etc.
Li Keqiang pointed out that the theme of the Expo, digital economy was in line with the new needs of China-Germany innovation cooperation. China was ready to launch the China-Germany Year of Innovation Cooperation taking the opportunity of this Expo as a platform to establish cooperative partnerships, to complement Germany’s “Industry 4.0” initiative and promote in-depth development of China-Germany relations and cooperation so that China and Germany can jointly pave a road of win-win cooperation and common prosperity.
In her speech, Merkel thanked Premier Li for his good wishes for the Expo. She said that China was Germany’s biggest trading partner in Asia and an important partner in high-tech research and development. Germany and China have their respective strengths in the field of “digital economy”, and the two countries can complement each other through cooperation in this regard. She wished all Chinese enterprises a successful exhibition.
Ma Kai, Vice-Premiers of the State Council of the People's Republic of China attended and addressed on the opening ceremony of the expo.