Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the Czech Republic in March 2016 saw Beijing and Prague strengthen their ties, and saw a number of agreements signed between the two countries as China looked to link Eastern and Central Europe to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Eighteen months later, and the Czech Republic is heading to the polls to elect a new parliament and prime minister, with the ANO party headed by billionaire businessman and former finance minister Andrej Babis currently leading in the polls. Widely seen as anti-establishment, anti-Europe and pro-business, Babis was finance minister during Xi’s visit, which ushered in a series of deals on Chinese investment into the country.

Below are three key areas in which China and the Czech Republic have worked together since Xi Jinping’s state visit, with the future continuing to look bright for ties between the two countries.

One of the major topics of discussion during Xi’s visit, progress on linking Prague to the Belt and Road Initiative has continued in the 18 months since then, symbolized by the departure of the first freight train from Prague on a 16-day journey to commodities hub Yiwu in east China’s Zhejiang Province in July this year.

The landlocked Czech Republic is in an ideal location to act as a Central European hub connecting Europe to China, with almost the whole of Europe within 1,000 kilometers of Prague. The World Bank says that in 2016, the Czech Republic imported 17.77 billion US dollars’ worth of products from China, more than triple the amount a decade before.

On a visit to China in July this year, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said his country's rapidly growing relations with China are guided by the two countries' leaders and driven by the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Czech Republic saw rapid growth in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the country in 2016, with the number of Chinese people visiting Central and Eastern Europe seeing a year-on-year increase of 229 percent.

Prague airport already enjoys direct routes to Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan Province, and tourists and business travelers should be able to fly directly from the Czech capital to six Chinese cities by 2018, according to China Daily, with the addition of routes to Kunming and Shenzhen this year. 

According to the Belt and Road Portal, Czech tourists traveling to China are expected to reach half a million in the next few years, up from previous figures of around 40,000.

With the elevation of official ties between the two countries, private companies have taken the lead, with bike-sharing arriving in Prague earlier this year via Chinese company ofo, and Czech car manufacturer Skoda announcing plans in July this year to double sales in China to 600,000 per year by 2020.

China’s CEFC Energy announced at the time of Xi’s visit that it would boost its total investment in the country to 1.57 billion US dollars, pumping money into infrastructure and energy projects, as well as financial services in the country. 

Reuters reported in September that the Czech government was considering interest from several international companies – including China’s General Nuclear Power – in investing in new nuclear projects to replace the outdated coal and gas fueled power stations.