Zhao Dafang, Secretary General of Ningbo Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Photo by Wang Yan
Ningbo, September 19 (Reporter Lin Bo) On September 19, the "Development Opportunities and Challenges of Central and Eastern European Countries in the Post-epidemic Era and the Commodity Trade Sharing Conference of Central and Eastern European Countries" sponsored by the Ningbo Municipal Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Zhejiang Province was held in Ningbo, where representatives of Central and Eastern European industry practitioners and experts and scholars gathered to focus on new opportunities for development and explore investment, trade and cooperation and exchanges.
Since 2014, Ningbo has actively responded to the "Belt and Road" initiative, gathered the strength of Ningbo to participate in China-CEEC cooperation, and carried out a series of innovative practices in trade exchanges, investment cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and mechanism construction, especially by holding a national-level China-CEEC Expo, setting up a China-CEEC economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone, and exploring the formation of the "Ningbo Path" for CEE cooperation.
Guo Xiao, founder of "Central and Eastern European House". Photo by Zhong Zhijie
According to the data, from January to July 2021, the total import and export volume between Ningbo and Central and Eastern European countries reached 21.61 billion yuan, an increase of 44.5% year-on-year, of which the import and export volume with Serbia was 440 million yuan, an increase of 66.8% year-on-year.
As an international investment and trade promotion agency at the local level, ningbo Council for the Promotion of International Trade has established the Ningbo Liaison Office of the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Joint Chamber of Commerce authorized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the China Chamber of International Commerce, which is a local liaison platform under the framework of the business cooperation mechanism between the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Chamber of Commerce.
"We have signed contracts with 41 business associations from Central and Eastern European countries." Zhao Dafang, secretary general of the Ningbo Municipal Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the purpose of holding this event is to help more people understand the opportunities and challenges of the development of Central and Eastern European countries in the post-epidemic era, and to guide people of insight to participate in it, "Ningbo will create better conditions for all-round cooperation between Ningbo and Central and Eastern European countries, and also provide great opportunities and broad space for practitioners engaged in related activities with Central and Eastern Europe." ”
The Central and Eastern European Countries Special Commodities Pavilion has been renovated and opened for many years, which is the largest, most complete category and latest model of Central and Eastern European commodity distribution center in China; the Central and Eastern European International Industrial Cooperation Park, which has organized nearly 20 Central and Eastern European project roadshows; the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Innovation Cooperation Research Center has initially established a network of scientific and technological cooperation and talent introduction covering Slovenia and other countries... Focusing on key tasks such as economic and trade cooperation, Ningbo has built a number of leading cooperation promotion platforms in china.
Not only economic and trade cooperation, but also in terms of people-to-people exchanges, Ningbo has also built a bridge of communication.
Taking the Central and Eastern European House headquartered in Ningbo as an example, as a "city hall" that comprehensively displays the economy, politics and culture of Central and Eastern European countries, the platform was founded by Guo Xiao, president of the Serbian Chinese Business Federation, and awarded by the Ningbo Council for the Promotion of International Trade. In the past six years, he has successively built the "Central and Eastern European House" in many cities, and built a platform for trade exchanges and cultural exchanges between Chinese non-governmental organizations and Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary and other Central and Eastern European countries.
Yan Guoqing, President of Ningbo Cooperative Research Institute of Central and Eastern European Countries. Photo by Zhong Zhijie
It is reported that Guo Xiao plans to settle 60 "Central and Eastern European Homes" in the country in 2021, and 300 in the next 3 to 5 years.
"Strive to set an example in creating a carrier of cooperation." Fan Donghua, deputy director of the Central and Eastern European Division of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said that the city will cultivate new platforms in multiple fields and scenarios in terms of trade carriers, investment carriers, entrepreneurial innovation carriers, and people-to-people exchange carriers, so as to create a good environment for development and growth.
Looking at the present, under the influence of the epidemic, how to seize the opportunity of cooperation between China and Cecilian countries?
"Digital economic cooperation has become a new engine for promoting economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries." Yan Guoqing, president of the Ningbo Institute of Cooperation between Central and Eastern European Countries, said that the epidemic has promoted online consumption, and Central and Eastern European countries will generally increase investment in the digital economy, "China has technological, scale, industrial and policy advantages in the digital economy, and cooperation with the digital economy of Central and Eastern European countries can become a new engine for China-Central and Eastern European countries cooperation." ”
In addition to digital economy cooperation, Yan Guoqing said that green economy cooperation is also a new focus of economic and trade cooperation between China and CeECs, "the two sides can make full use of the China-CEEC environmental protection cooperation mechanism to encourage the implementation of green environmental protection demonstration projects between cities in China and CEECs, mainly covering clean energy, green transportation, energy conservation and environmental protection, green buildings and other fields." (End)
Source: China News Network