China-Europe Ties: SME cooperation zone established with Central & Eastern Europe

World
Europe

02:21

A cooperation zone for SMEs has been established in China's Hebei Province, to boost economic ties with Central and Eastern European countries. CGTN's Ning Hong has the story.

It's the first platform that aims to help SMEs from 16 central and eastern European countries conduct business in China.

HUO YUZHEN, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY "Companies, especially SMEs in these countries have strong interest in working with Chinese companies, so we are trying to satisfy the needs of both sides.  "

GRIGOR POROZHANOV, BULGARIAN AMBASSADOR TO CHINA "We are undertaking new initiative in order to present more actively these cooperation, basically to present the high-quality products from the 16 countries from the Central and Eastern Europe to Chinese consumers, and give more opportunity to our people to know high-quality commodities from China as well."

So far, ties between China and Central and Eastern European countries have been picking up speed, with a volume of bilateral trade increasing from 40 billion US dollars in 2012 to 70 billion in 2017. Areas of cooperation also expanded from trade to education, tourism and cultural exchanges.

The ties between modern China and Eastern European countries can be traced back to the 1950s, when countries from eastern Europe provided invaluable support to China. A museum was built to honor the lasting friendship.

NING HONG, HEBEI PROVINCE "These exhibits have witnessed the friendship and cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries for over half a century, and now the friendship has become a solid foundation to further boost trade and exchange."

Sun Guozhong is a manager of a local flight school. His company has been working with a Czech flight school to develop general aviation in China.  

SUN GUOZHONG, GENERAL MANAGER, ZHONGJIE AVIATION ACADEMY, HEBEI PROVINCE "The most important premise is that China has great market potential and consumption needs. That is the key to our cooperation."

The Cooperation Zone will also develop projects involving green agricultural products, high-end manufacturing, and tourism. Ning Hong, CGTN, Hebei Province.