Xi urges prioritization of China-CEE ties in China-EU partnerships

By Zhao Cheng from People’s Daily

Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the significance of cooperation between Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and China, also known as “16+1 cooperation,” in China-EU partnerships during his meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic last Saturday, the second day of his three-nation trip.

“China and CEE countries should build ‘16+1 cooperation’ into an important undertaking for the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative to blend into the European economic zone and set it as a priority in the implementation of four major China-EU partnerships for peace, growth, reform and civilization,” Xi said.

As early as November 2015, Xi stressed as an important component and supplement to the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, “16+1 cooperation” will contribute to the four major China-EU Partnerships for peace, growth, reform and civilization.

He made the remarks during his meeting with leaders attending the 4th China—CEE Summit.

In recent years, China achieved steady progress in cooperation on trade, investments and infrastructure with CEE countries – a region with the most development potential in Europe.

In 2015, trade between the two sides reached $56.2 billion, a 28 percent growth from 2010. The trade structure and coverage were also further optimized.

Chinese enterprises have invested over $5 billion in CEE countries, while the 16-member-group has channeled more than $1.2 billion into China.

At the Tangshan Consensus, China and CEE countries pledged to integrate the Chinese market with European technology, following a local leaders’ meeting last Friday.

At the meeting held in the industrial prefecture-level city in northeastern Hebei Province, they also agreed to devote more efforts in energy conservation and environmental protection by reinforcing cooperation in clean energy exploitation and pollution control.

China has established 97 pairs of “sister cities” and 58 pairs of “sister provinces/states” with 15 CEE countries other than Estonia.

The potential for China-CEE cooperation remains huge as China’s investments in CEE countries only accounts for 2 percent of its EU investments.

Infrastructure and cooperation in connectivity, production capacity and equipment manufacturing are believed to be new growth engines for “16+1” economic and trade cooperation.