18 May 2017. The ceremony included Doris Leuthard, president of the Swiss Confederation, the Minister of Education for the Canton of St.Gallen Stefan Kölliker and the Chinese Ambassador to Switzerland Geng Wenbing. Representatives from the University of St.Gallen were HSG President Thomas Bieger, and the Director of the Research Institute of International Management (FIM-HSG) Professor Winfried Ruigrok. Representing UIEB were President Wang Jiaqiong and the Dean of China Institute of WTO Studies Professor Tu Xinquan.

China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement

SSCC aims to develop research projects to help enhance the academic relationship between China and Switzerland. It also seeks to strengthen the institutional development and support of managers, decision-makers and policy-makers bilaterally. The Center will focus on various subjects such as China’s overseas investment and innovation. The first project will research the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In this regard, SSCC Director Professor Tomas Casas notes, "Our research project will jointly examine the effectiveness and utilisation of the Sino-Swiss Free Trade Agreement signed in 2014. The Sino-Swiss Competence Centre will apply an interdisciplinary approach combining economics, management science and policy-making perspectives."

On 12 May the UIBE and the HSG jointly launched their co-operation with the "SSCC First Stepping Stone China Symposium on Globalization" held in Beijing, China. Participants from governments, universities and industry of both countries extensively discussed subjects related to SSCC’s agenda, particularly the upgrading of the China-Switzerland FTA.

It is tentatively agreed that a second symposium will be organised in spring 2018 in St.Gallen with the aim of sharing the first results of SSCC’s joint research on the China-Switzerland FTA.