Foreign guests for the fourth China-Europe High-Level Political Party Forum visit Lingering Garden, a classical Suzhou-style garden located in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on Monday. [Xu Jingxing / China Daily]

What is required for China, the world's second-largest economy, to reach the next, more sophisticated level?

At a Monday seminar in Taicang, Jiangsu province, visiting European delegates and German entrepreneurs in China discussed megatrends in China's economy and their implications for German companies.

Rudolf Scharping, Germany's former defense minister and former chairman of Social Democratic Party, moderated Monday's discussion.

Scharping identified urbanization, sustainability in industries, higher quality of production and resource efficiency as the four major trends in China's economy. He said he wanted to hear opinions from German entrepreneurs on these trends.

"My frequent contacts with German companies in China and Chinese companies in Germany led me to believe that there is a specific need to adjust the future development to a state of harmony between economic growth, human needs and ecological conditions," Scharping said.