Helene Rives, head of the China business group at PwC, said the "sluggish European economy has created M&A opportunities for Chinese investors" and that the lingering uncertainty in the eurozone had increased their chances of securing favorable deals with debt-laden European companies that were until now inaccessible.
Schroeder said he thought the M&A trend - which reflects an increase in the power of China's industrial sector - will be a long-term phenomenon.
He added that Germany, which was the top destination for Chinese investment in Europe in the past 15 months, would also remain an attractive market, with its skilled labor force and developed manufacturing sector.
But Hildebrand said although some eurozone countries will become stronger competitors amid the fiscal adjustments, more optimistic signs are needed if Europe is to attract more investments.
Also at the forum, former British prime minister Gordon Brown said he has seen a boom in Chinese infrastructure investment in Africa, Europe and America, and he expects more to be made by private companies, which will play an important role as funding sources.
He also encouraged countries to intensify cooperation to overcome the current turmoil.
"The current global economic challenges were neither a result of manipulated currencies nor trade protectionism," Brown said.
"They are because we are in the process of an unprecedented change globally, which was even bigger than the industrialization in the UK."
The change Brown referred to was a transfer in the world's economic gravity, which was reflected in a comparison of production, export and consumption between the West and East.
He said that in 2010, the majority of world production and export was for the first time accomplished in Asia and emerging markets, rather than the US and Europe, and added that similar changes will now appear in consumption.
Bullet train attendants receive trainings in China's Shenyang
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