Luxembourg ambassador reflects on golden jubilee between China and European nation

The celebration of the 50th anniversary of our bilateral diplomatic relations gives us the opportunity to honor the past, celebrate the present and look ahead together.

The relationship between Luxembourg and China is the most dynamic our country has outside of the European Union. It is a strong and continuously evolving friendship.

People like Adolphe Franck, who was the first foreigner to be given the title "Friendship Ambassador" in China, have made significant contributions to this friendship. As a railway employee and a member of the Luxembourg Communist Party, Franck visited China 58 times and gained the trust and respect of Chinese leadership.

Despite the geographical distance separating our two countries and despite the fact that the two countries have adopted different governance systems, friendly exchanges between China and Luxembourg took place as far back as the end of the 19th century.

At that time, a team of Luxembourg engineers led by Eugene Ruppert helped to develop the emerging Chinese steel industry in today's Wuhan city. The local steel industry then became a model for China. The spectacular Zhang Zhidong and Modern Industrial Museum in Wuhan illustrates this early period of our bilateral cooperation through a large collection of photographs, documents and authentic objects.

Since then, and during the past 50 years, our two countries have enjoyed fruitful economic exchanges in logistics, engineering and finance.

In 1979, the Bank of China established its first overseas branch in Luxembourg. So far, seven major Chinese banks have set up their European headquarters in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg is one of the countries where China has issued overseas green bonds. It is also the very first EU country to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and hosted the AIIB annual meeting in 2019.

When Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, the first foreign head of state arriving in China for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, met with President Xi Jinping in February, both sides emphasized efforts to expand and enhance the "Silk Road in the Air" of China-Luxembourg freight transport routes.

The "Silk Road in the Air" between Zhengzhou and Luxembourg is a unique success story of pushing forward the Belt and Road Initiative, with our national cargo airline Cargolux operating more than 50 flights a week between China and Luxembourg.

The "Silk Road in the Air" provides the framework to develop the so-called "dual hub" strategy, with a Luxembourg airport as a logistics center for Europe and America and a logistics center in Zhengzhou for the Asia-Pacific region.

The impact of the "Silk Road in the Air" is visible and tangible: the airfreight connection between Zhengzhou and Luxembourg served as a true lifeline between China and Europe amid COVID-19 outbreaks, delivering lots of needed medical supplies.

Over the past 40 years, China has introduced reform and opening-up policies, which are fundamental steps to ensure the economy's qualitative growth and meet the expectations of foreign investors in terms of the development potential of one of the world's largest economies.

In addition, China's commitment to achieve its dual carbon goals creates the needed momentum to speed up global green growth and to strengthen our joint efforts to tackle climate change.

I stress joint efforts because, in a connected world, we have no other option but to work together to solve global existential threats such as climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.

The "dual carbon goals" have put China's low-carbon transition in full swing. To fulfill the objectives, a profound structural transformation is needed; not merely in terms of upgrading the economic structure and managing the energy transition, but with a view of adopting coordinated measures to promote long-term high-quality economic growth. At the same time, we need to protect our environment.

Green finance will continue to be an important tool to achieve such a comprehensive transition. More climate-related financial products should be developed; corporate environmental disclosure needs to be improved; green financial standards will hopefully be further unified to use similar catalogues in mobilizing green loans, green bonds and green funds. Incentive and punishment policies as well as pilot zones will be further enhanced.

As the leading investment fund hub in Europe, Luxembourg is making a lasting impact in shifting more assets to green, socially responsible and sustainable investments. We stand ready to further engage and develop highly complementary cooperation with China in fields such as green economy, green finance and circular economy.

The China Cultural Center, which opened on November 8 in Luxembourg, is a new milestone in bilateral cooperation. The center will offer Luxembourgers many opportunities to explore the diversity and richness of Chinese culture while promoting more people-to-people exchanges.

Looking ahead, we should celebrate what we achieved together while remaining humble and sparing no efforts to further deepen our partnership.

Marc Hubsch is Luxembourg's ambassador to China. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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