Trade frictions between EU and China were obviously what the EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson didn't want to talk about on Monday when he met Chinese media prior to the official launch of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China's new office in Guangzhou.

Instead, the commissioner underscored the need for more flexible policies and fewer trade hurdles from the Chinese authority for Europe-based companies.

"I am here in China to help European small and medium-sized enterprises penetrate into the Chinese market and realize their potential. We should for a better collaboration between EU and China, especially Guangdong Province," Mandelson said.

According to EU standards, companies with a gross asset of between 1 million euros and 5 million euros are categorized as small and medium sized enterprises. According to Bing Bing Shi, a lawyer with the Shenzhen-based Guanghe Law Firm, the difficulties faced by these enterprises largely relate to intellectual property rights.

The poker-faced Mandelson noted: "The province had achieved an economic success over last two decades, however, it is faced against many issues slowing down the pace of its further growth, such as under-performing banking system and lack of protection on intellectual property rights."

"EU has advanced banking system, technology and abundant capital, which is important to China's development. Please do not put up barriers to prevent us from coming," he said said.

To further aid EU business ambitions in Guangdong, the EU Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), with already more than 850 members in China, officially opened a new chapter in Guangzhou on the same day, which became the EUCCC's seventh office in China following offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu, Tianjin and Shenyang.

The chapter covering the Pearl River Delta region would offer guidance to those European companies aiming to enter the Chinese market, especially Guangdong, according to European Chamber president Janssens de Varebeke.

Editor: Yan