A China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Business Council meeting gathered more than 200 government officials and entrepreneurs from 18 nations in Ningbo, a port city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, on Wednesday, to discuss cooperation on supply chains and economic and trade exchanges.
At the opening ceremony, Yu Jianlong, vice chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), said the CCPIT stands ready to work with business associations from CEE countries to explore new growth drivers for trade, expand collaboration in clean energy, and deepen the integration of industrial and supply chains.
"China and Central and European countries are moving toward each other, offering momentum and confidence to a world facing turbulence and uncertainty," Yu said in his speech.
Prominent attendees from CEE nations who also delivered speeches at the event included Jagoda Lazarevic, Serbia's Minister of Domestic and Foreign Trade, Vladimir Simonak, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, and Janusz Piechocinski, former Polish Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Poland-Asia Chamber of Commerce.
"[I'm here] to encourage all of you, representatives from businesses present here, to fullly use all the opportunities that exist between our countries. And I would like to assure you of the full and most complete support of our government," Simonak said in his speech.
Many participants said the gathering is a key platform which plays a crucial role in advancing economic, trade, investment cooperation between China and CEE countries.
"[What] I have to tell you is [that] for the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, it's one of the most important sources of information here and has been really pivotal in helping us in our work here," Jelena Grubor Stefanovic, director of the Representative Office of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, said in an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN).
"For us, [North Macedonia] is a small economy [which aims] to increase the cooperation first, to increase the export we have here, to try to attract some of your investments in my country," Ambassador of North Macedonia to China Sashko Nasev told CGTN.
Established in 2014, the China-CEEC Business Council is an important part of the multi-dimensional cooperation framework set up by China and CEE countries, offering a platform for economic and trade exchanges between the business communities from the two sides. Currently, its members include the CCPIT and 17 business associations and trade promotion organizations of 13 CEE countries.
Wednesday's meeting took place on the eve of the fourth China-CEEC Expo and International Consumer Goods Fair, which is slated to run from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo.
China-CEEC Business Council holds meeting in Ningbo to discuss cooperation
