On October 15, the 2025 China-Nordic Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum, themed “Hubei as the Pivot, Smart Chain Global”, opened at Wuhan East Lake International Conference Center.
Delegates from 36 countries and regions gathered at the lakeside of East Lake, including more than 200 fortune 500 enterprises, 556 foreign entrepreneurs and more than 2,000 business guests. During the opening ceremony, 69 projects were successfully connected with a total investment of 100.596 billion yuan.
International event: The history and scale of the Nordic Forum
As the first and only long-term economic and trade cooperation mechanism dedicated to Nordic countries in China, the Nordic Forum has successfully held six sessions since its launch in 2018, becoming a symbolic name card for expanding economic and trade cooperation and deepening exchanges between China and Europe.
The forum, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and the People’s Government of Hubei Province, is an important event arrangement of “Investing in China”.
Coinciding with the historic occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Sweden, Denmark and Finland, as well as the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Sweden, the international participation in this forum has reached a new high.
The forum set up the guest of honor for the first time. As the guest of honor for the first time, Denmark organized a high-level delegation to Hubei province and carried out in-depth exchanges with senior political and business circles in Hubei province.
A gathering of celebrities: Political and business leaders discuss cooperation
At the opening ceremony of the forum, Wang Zhonglin, Secretary of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce of China and Ye Pu, Executive Secretary of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delivered speeches.
In his speech, Yan Ci, President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China and Chief Representative for North Asia of Denmark’s Maersk Group, said: “Over the past 75 years, the cooperative relationship between China and Northern Europe and the whole of Europe has created great value.”
Maersk has been rooted in Hubei for 26 years, relying on the regional advantages to provide customers with comprehensive transportation and logistics services.
Pang Anze, President and Chief Sustainability Officer of IKEA China, said that the open and innovative business environment in Hubei has strengthened IKEA’s determination to take deep roots and develop in Hubei for a long time.
He pointed out that “green”, “innovation” and “quality” have become the core keywords of China and Nordic cooperation.
Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, shared her views on global economy and trade: “The current global economy and trade is not just a simple transaction, but a common dream to make the world a better place. This is the value of manufacturing.”
Technological innovation: Intelligent applications lead the future
In line with the trend of intelligence, this forum attaches more importance to the application of artificial intelligence in scenarios, and strives to build a scientific and technological event with higher “new content”.
The forum featured AI applications including digital avatars ‘Jingjing’ and ‘ChuChu’ for commentary, guide robots for navigation, and security patrol robots, enabling attendees to ‘anticipate the future and seize opportunities’.
Many multinational enterprises have already set up research and development centers in Hubei.
Otto Liv established a technology research and development center in Hubei province to build a global automotive safety technology innovation network; Valeo built a global software technology center in Hubei province; Siemens invested in the research and development of power transformers in Hubei province, and its products cover various provinces and cities and are exported to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and other countries.
Connectivity: Trade routes are upgraded
At the opening ceremony, the new route of China-Europe freight train (Wuhan) to three Nordic countries (Hubei Wuhan-Sweden/Denmark/Norway) was officially launched, marking the extension of China-Europe freight train (Wuhan) land transport territory to five Nordic countries.
The whole time of the new route is expected to be 22 days, saving half the time compared with the traditional transportation mode, which can greatly improve the efficiency of cross-border logistics.
Up to now, China-Europe freight trains (Wuhan) have shipped 5,791 trains with a value of 120 billion yuan. It has 59 stable cross-border transport routes, covering 120 cities in 40 countries across Eurasia.
The forum also held the opening ceremony of the Global Imported Premium Goods Pavilion, located at the Cross-border Shopping Source Life Plaza within Wuhan East Lake Comprehensive Bonded Zone. The pavilion featured a Nordic-themed exhibition hall, attracting over 20 companies including IKEA, Lego, and Aibei, more than 50 European brands, and over 300 new products to participate in the event.
Hubei opportunity: a new highland of inland opening
In recent years, Hubei has focused on the mission of accelerating the construction of an important strategic fulcrum for the rise of the central region, vigorously implemented the strategy of improving the capacity of the hub, and promoted the continuous improvement of the open radiation force.
In 2024, the total import and export value of the province reached 705.8 billion yuan, a new record high, and the actual use of foreign capital reached 1.92 billion US dollars, maintaining the first place in central China.
Long Xiaohong, director of the Hubei Provincial Department of Commerce, presented the unique transportation advantages, perfect industrial and innovation ecology, and broad market space of Hubei province through three stories such as a flight route, a car and a set of data.
She said that in the new era, “Jiuzhou Tongqu” is accessible to the world, “Jiuzhou Tongshang” is connected to the world, and “Jiuzhou Tongrong” is full of momentum.
Guo Yuanqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, said in promoting Wuhan as an international consumer city that the city has formulated and implemented the Three-Year Action Plan for Building Wuhan into an International Consumer City (2025-2027) to accelerate the creation of an international consumer city from six aspects.
The Nordic Forum will be held in a “1+5+12” matrix, including one opening ceremony, five major events and 12 thematic events.
The forum framework includes a series of activities such as the East Lake Dialogue between Chinese and European entrepreneurs, the China-Europe (Denmark) Creative Night and “Tesco Hubei” International Consumer goods Special, and the Museum Night.
With the continuous development of these activities, Hubei is moving from the inland hinterland to the forefront of opening up, and has become an important bridge connecting China and the economic and trade cooperation between Northern European countries.
The government sets the stage and innovates the system: promoting economic and trade integration in central and Northern Europe with facilitation policies
With the policy support of the Chinese government, the 2025 China-Nordic Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum was successfully held. Co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and the People’s Government of Hubei Province, the forum was included in the important event arrangements of “Invest in China”. The government has been committed to creating a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, rule-of-law-based, and internationalized. By establishing foreign currency exchange service points, adding “buy-and-refund immediately” stores for departure tax refunds, and supporting overseas bank card payments, it provides safeguards for international economic and trade exchanges. These measures are consistent with China’s policy orientation of comprehensively deepening reforms and expanding high-level opening-up. They aim to offset uncertainties in the external environment through the certainty of pragmatic cooperation, jointly uphold the multilateral trading system, and build an open world economy.
