"Our wines are not cheap, but they are not as expensive as the wines of France, Italy and some other countries, and they are good value for money." In the face of the Chinese media, Serbian President Vučić "promoted" his own wine.
As the first of the six practical measures in the first phase of the construction of a China-Cyprus community with a shared future in the new era, the China-Cyprus Free Trade Agreement officially entered into force on July 1 this year. With the entry into force of the free trade agreement, the tariff on Serbian wine will be reduced by 20% year by year, and Chinese consumers will be able to enjoy tariff-free wine in the future.
In addition to wine, the six practical measures also mentioned that China is willing to expand the import of Serbian special and high-quality agricultural products, and the two sides have completed the procedures for exporting dried plums and blueberries to China. Previously, Serbia's Apple had been allowed to enter the Chinese market.
Chen Huizhi, a distinguished researcher at the Civilization Regional Planning Research Center of Capital Normal University, has just participated in the first Sino-Serbian cultural exchange forum in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and she told the first financial reporter that China and Cyprus are very stable in political relations and thriving in economic and trade cooperation.
China and Cyprus are mutually beneficial
In August this year, the first Serbian apples will enter the Chinese market as the apple trees bear fruit.
In October 2023, the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement on phytosanitary requirements for the import of Serbian apples. Zagorac, president of the Serbian Apple Producers Association, said at the time that Serbia would be able to deliver the first apples to the Chinese market in the next harvest season.
Serbia produces about 500,000 tonnes of apples a year, and Russia was previously the largest buyer of Serbian apples, which has led to the growing of large numbers of apple varieties that are suitable for the taste of Russian consumers. Nowadays, with the market switching, Serbia is not only exploring the European market, but also focusing on the development of the Middle East and East Asian markets.
Serbia is blessed with the vast Pannonian steppe in the north, the Sava and Danube rivers in the south, and the Morava Valley, which is blessed with a variety of fruits and vegetables. According to the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, fruits and vegetables account for 25% of Serbia's total agricultural exports, half of which go to the EU market.
According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs, the import and export trade volume between China and Serbia in 2023 will be 30.63 billion yuan, of which China's exports will be 19 billion yuan and imports will be 11.62 billion yuan, and Serbia will have a large deficit with China. With the entry into force of the China-Cyprus Free Trade Agreement, this situation is expected to be alleviated.
The China-Cyprus FTA is the first FTA signed between China and CEE countries. The FTA negotiations were officially launched in April 2023, and all negotiations were substantially completed in just five months. On October 17 of that year, during Vučić's visit to China, the China-Cyprus FTA was officially signed. China and Cyprus will remove tariffs on 90 percent of each other's tariff lines, of which more than 60 percent will be removed as soon as the agreement enters into force.
According to the person in charge of the International Department of the Ministry of Commerce in October last year, China will include generators, electric motors, tires, beef, wine, nuts, etc., which are the focus of the Cypriot side, into zero tariffs, and tariffs on relevant products will be gradually reduced from the current 5%~20% to zero.
The Cypriot side will include automobiles, photovoltaic modules, lithium batteries, communication equipment, machinery and equipment, refractories, and some agricultural and aquatic products that China focuses on into zero tariffs, and the tariffs on relevant products will be gradually reduced from the current 5%~20% to zero.
With the busy economic and trade exchanges, the personnel exchanges between China and Cyprus have become more frequent. Among the six practical measures announced this time, it is also mentioned: "China welcomes the Serbian side to increase the direct flight route between Belgrade and Shanghai, and encourages the air transport enterprises of the two countries to open a direct flight route from Belgrade to Guangzhou." ”
Since January 2017, Serbia has been visa-free for ordinary Chinese passports. However, there are not many direct flights between the two countries. In 2019, when the CBN reporter traveled to Belgrade from Shanghai, he needed to transfer to a Middle Eastern country, and in the near future, Air Serbia will start direct flights between the two places.
The Chinese people may not be unfamiliar with Air Serbia. In 2020, during the difficult time of the fight against the epidemic, Air Serbia operated hundreds of special cargo flights and delivered hundreds of tons of medical equipment and equipment supported by China to Serbia.
In September 2022, Air Serbia launched the Belgrade-Tianjin route. Previously, in July 2022, Hainan Airlines also resumed the Beijing-Belgrade route, which is the first direct route between China and Belgrade after the epidemic. The Belgrade-Shanghai route will be the third air shortcut between China and Cyprus.
As early as February this year, the 44th Belgrade International Tourism Expo was held at the Belgrade Convention and Exhibition Center in Serbia, with China as the guest of honor at the Expo. "I invite Chinese tourists to come to our country." At the opening ceremony of the expo, Vučić said that the friendship between Cyprus and China stems from a high degree of mutual trust, and the two peoples are sincere friends, and more Chinese tourists are welcome to visit Cyprus.
Deepening infrastructure cooperation
In the future, on the Hungarian-Serbian railway, Chinese-made high-speed EMUs will run together with Swiss-made trains.
The Hungarian-Serbian Railway connects Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, connecting the historic cities of Central and Eastern Europe. It is the first railway project built by China in the European Union, and it is also a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative between China and Central and Eastern European countries. With a total length of 341.7 kilometres, the project will reduce the travel time between the Hungarian and Serbian capitals from eight hours to three hours.
At the end of last year, Chinese enterprises and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure of Serbia officially signed a business contract for the purchase of high-speed EMU vehicles, and the high-speed rail trains made in China will soon run on the Hungarian-Serbian railway, which also means that China's high-speed EMUs will be exported to Europe for the first time, and the train is planned to be put into use in 2025.
In March 2022, the Hungarian-Serbian railway was put into operation on the Belgrade to Novi Sad section of Serbia, which is about 80 kilometers apart. After the opening of the Benoy section, it has served millions of passengers, greatly facilitating the travel of people along the line, and also increasing the speed of the Hungarian-Serbian railway from 40 kilometers per hour to 200 kilometers per hour.
The opening of the Benoy section of the Hungarian-Serbian railway has made Serbia the first Central and Eastern European country to enter the "high-speed rail era". China-Cyprus infrastructure cooperation is the highlight of the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, creating several "firsts": the Zemun-Borca Bridge across the Danube River in Belgrade has become the first bridge built by Chinese enterprises in Europe; Serbia E763 Expressway is the first highway built by a Chinese enterprise in Europe.
Serbia's E763 highway, with a total length of about 300 kilometers, is an important passage connecting Serbia to the Montenegrin estuary, and is also a transportation artery connecting the Balkans with neighboring countries. In the future, after the completion of the E763 highway, Serbia, as a landlocked country, will be able to reach the seaport through this highway, which will greatly enhance Serbia's commodity export capacity.
At that time, Ning Xiaohui, the business manager of the European company of Shandong High-speed Group International Cooperation Company, participated in the construction of the highway on the front line. He once told the first financial reporter: "This highway has 4 lanes in both directions, with a design speed of 130 kilometers per hour, and the quality is higher than the existing local expressway." ”
He also told reporters that the southern part of Serbia, where the highway is located, is dominated by hills and mountains, and tunnels need to be excavated in the fifth section of the road. Due to the complex geological structure, many landslides were encountered during the excavation process. But none of these difficulties stopped them from completing the construction of the road in quality and quantity.
In addition, the Bačkibreg-Sebskákonha Expressway undertaken by China Construction Eighth Bureau, a subsidiary of China State Construction Group, is a key project in the "Serbia 2025" national plan. Located in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia, the project will facilitate travel and trade between people and commerce on the east and west sides of northern Serbia, as the route looks like a smiling mouth on the map, and is also known as the "Smile Highway" by locals.
The Belt and Road Initiative between China and Cyprus has gone through 10 years of history, and now it is once again standing at the starting point of a new journey. China and Cyprus will promote the high-quality development of economic and trade cooperation at a higher level and on a larger scale.
Chen Huizhi told the first financial reporter that from the perspective of people-to-people exchanges, in the future Sino-Cypriot cooperation, it is necessary to tilt more front-line positions to people who understand each other's culture.
For example, she suggested that Chinese-funded enterprises in Serbia should hire more "Chinese-minded" Serbian returned students to business positions and expand their "exposure" to them, rather than just letting them engage in translation work, which will be more conducive to the seamless connection of Sino-Serbian exchanges and better promote the cooperation between the two countries.
(This article is from Yicai)