• Rainbow Bridge Project: Chinese President Xi Jingping visits German-Chinese youth soccer match

• Soccer match at the Berlin Olympics site as the highlight of a one-week training camp for young footballers from China

A very special German-Chinese youth football match took place in Berlin today. In the presence of the Chinese President Xi Jingping, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, and Prof. Dr. Jochem Heizmann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft and President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, a junior team from VfL Wolfsburg played against a youth team from the Chinese provinces of Shaanxi and Hubei. Volkswagen is involved in social and cultural activities in China within the Rainbow Bridge Project initiative. Local sports sponsorship and training are key elements in the corporate social responsibility strategy of the Volkswagen Group.

'Soccer links people throughout the world. That has once again been very clear today. I am very pleased that Volkswagen is able to open up new prospects for young people through soccer as part of social projects. For me, that is corporate social responsibility in practice,' Winterkorn explained in Berlin.

The German champion youth team of VfL Wolfsburg trained for a week together with 20 Chinese girls and boys from the cities of Zhidan in Shaanxi Province and Hong'an in Hubei Province. The objective of joint training camps is to promote interchange between Germany and China and to offer young people professional sports coaching. In their leisure time, the Chinese guests visited the Autostadt and the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, as well as the German capital, Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Jochem Heizmann said at the Olympic site in Berlin: 'Volkswagen has already supported a large number of social projects in China for many years. We are especially committed to training and the promotion of sports for young people. Cultural exchange in the area of youth soccer is one of the great results of these efforts. The Rainbow Bridge Project in China is an outstanding example of the close links between culture and companies.'

As part of its corporate social responsibility, the Volkswagen Group is involved in more than 100 social projects throughout the world. The main emphasis is on the continuity and sustainability of involvement. The initial and advanced vocational training of employees is one of the key criteria. Other ongoing CSR projects in China, for example, include the Volkswagen Road Safety Education Program and the Green Future Environmental Education Initiative to promote environmental awareness and road safety.

The Rainbow Bridge Project

This project was launched by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. The objective is to establish a bridge between the various possibilities and networks available to major companies and the social needs of Chinese provinces. Since 2013, Volkswagen Group China has supported the project with about €180,000 (1.5 million RMB). Apart from vocational training based on the German model, the main emphasis is on soccer coaching for young people in four Chinese provinces where economic conditions are poor.

Volkswagen in China

In China, two production joint ventures, Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. (SVW) and First Automotive Works-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. (FAW-VW) produce models of the Group brands Volkswagen, Audi and ŠKODA for the Chinese market. To a very large extent, engines and vehicles components manufactured locally are used in vehicle production. In total, the Volkswagen Group is represented at 17 locations in China, including a MAN components plant.

In 2013, the Group delivered more than 3.27 million vehicles in China, making China the largest sales market of the Volkswagen Group.