The second China-CEEC Expo is to be held in Ningbo, Zhenjiang province, from June 8 to 11 and will help China to share its market opportunities with the 17 Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). Besides the CEEC exhibition, there will be the international consumer goods exhibition and the permanent exhibition of imported commodities, said Zhu Congjiu, Vice Governor of Zhejiang. The exhibition will have a total floor area of 200,000 square meters. More than 2,000 exhibitors and 6,000 buyers are expected to participate in the event. “In the coming five years, we will strive to import USD20 billion of commodities from Central and Eastern European countries, realize over USD1.5 billion worth of two-way investment, and increase our cross-border e-commerce trade with the countries by over 30% on average every year,” he said. Ren Hongbin, Assistant Minister of Commerce, said the Expo will help boost imports from CEE countries, advance trade and economic cooperation between China and Europe, and serve the needs of China’s expanding consumption market.
Bilateral trade between China and the CEE nations surged by 50.2% on a yearly basis to USD30.13billion in the first quarter of this year. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary remained China’s top three trading partners in the region. Zhang Shaogang, Vice Chairman of the Beijing-based China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), said Central and Eastern European countries have comparative advantages in mechanical and electrical products, automobiles and parts, agricultural and textile products, minerals, raw materials and other goods. There is huge room for China to expand imports from these countries, he said. The China-CEEC cooperation mechanism was launched in 2012. Total trade between China and the 17 Central and Eastern European countries surged by 8.4% on a yearly basis to USD103.45 billion last year, exceeding USD100 billion for the first time, higher than the growth rates of China’s foreign trade and its trade with the European Union during the same period, according to the General Administration of Customs.
The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) signed memorandums of understanding on investment cooperation and trade promotion with its counterparts in Albania, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Hungary in the first quarter of this year. The two sides to date have invested nearly USD20 billion in each other’s markets, covering car components, the chemical industry, home appliances, logistics and mining. New growth areas are the green and low-carbon sector, medical and healthcare, as well as new energy, the China Daily reports.
