In one of the largest acquisitions in Slovenian history, Chinese electronics giant Hisense has bought home appliances producer Gorenje for 340 million US dollars. Just a few weeks ago, the European Commission confirmed the acquisition was done in accordance with EU regulations. This opened the door for Hisense's significant breakthrough in the European market. CGTN's Aljosa Milenkovic reports from Slovenia.  

For seven decades, the Gorenje firm has been manufacturing home appliances. It started as the biggest producer in the former Yugoslavia. Today Gorenje is considered a very important player in the European home appliances market, holding a 4 percent slice of the total.

Its annual turnover is around 1.5 billion US dollars. But beneath those seemingly positive numbers, the management could see the company was heading for a dead end. That's why they decided to contact Chinese partners and ask them to bail the company out from a potentially disastrous situation.

DENIS OSTIR DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, GORENJE GROUP "Companies of our size have either gone bankrupt or they've become a part of a larger group. So it was pretty clear that we need to find a strategic partner and an owner who's gonna be able to provide us with the quality backing we need to grow with them in a sustainable way. So it was a decision we took. It wasn't a hostile takeover, it was one we encouraged, it was the path we knew we needed to pursue."

Eleven thousand workers work in four Gorenje factories in Slovenia, Serbia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Gorenje management says all those jobs would be in jeopardy without this acquisition by Hisense. Gorenje is just one of the examples of increasing China-Slovenia economic relations, which are on a two-way street.

ALJOSA MILENKOVIC LJUBLJANA "Slovenian company Pipistrel with its Chinese partner is opening two electric aircraft factories in China. Another Slovenian company Arctur installed Europe's first Chinese-made super computer, while China bought Slovenia's second largest airport, Maribor international, as well as the TAM trucks company. Neither side would like to see the list there close."

Slovenia is part of the Belt and Road initiative, and as such has great potential for infrastructure developments. The country's geostrategic position provides significant perspectives for investments in sea, land and air traffic infrastructure. And that's something China is very interested in. But according to analysts, not everybody is happy with that possibility.

SAŠO STANOVNIK ECONOMIST ANALYST, ALTA INVEST "There are sometimes signals from the West that maybe we should rely more on Western investors. However, I'd say that the climate in Slovenia is not biased towards certain investors. We could say maybe, because of history, we are more easily persuaded to take Russian or Chinese investments than let's say from the US."

As Mr. Stanovnik said, those investments are most likely not going to happen yet, but there is a lot of other options and projects on the table. The Gorenje example shows how those can materialize. Aljosa Milenkovic, CGTN, Velenje.