China News Service, February 4th. On the 4th, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, Gao Feng, introduced the recent economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (17+1), and pointed out that in 2020, the trade volume between China and 17 Central and Eastern European countries will reach 103.45 billion. The U.S. dollar exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars for the first time, an increase of 8.4%, higher than the growth rate of China's foreign trade and China-EU trade during the same period.

  On the 4th, the Ministry of Commerce held a regular press conference.

In answering the question on "Recent economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (17+1)", Gao Feng made the above statement.

  Gao Feng said that since the establishment of the cooperation mechanism between China and Central and Eastern European countries in 2012, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries has been continuously improved and upgraded, and positive progress has been made in the fields of trade, investment, project contracting, and interconnection. The multi-level, wide-ranging, mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation situation is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

  The economic and trade cooperation mechanism is becoming more and more perfect.

China-CEEC Economic and Trade Forum has been held for 9 consecutive sessions; China-CEEC Ministerial Conference on Economic and Trade Promotion has been held 3 times; China-CEEC Investment and Trade Fair has been successfully held for 4 sessions in Ningbo, and it will be upgraded to The China-CEEC Expo was successfully held.

  Investment cooperation continues to expand.

By the end of 2020, China had accumulatively invested US$3.14 billion in direct investment in the entire industry in 17 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, involving energy, minerals, infrastructure, logistics, auto parts and other fields.

During the same period, 17 Central and Eastern European countries have invested US$1.72 billion in China.

  Project contracting progressed in an orderly manner.

In 2020, China's newly signed project contracts in 17 Central and Eastern European countries amounted to US$5.41 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.6%.

Major projects such as the Hungary-Serbia Railway, the Croatian Pelješac Bridge, the Serbian E763 highway, and the priority section of the Montenegro North-South Expressway are progressing smoothly.

  Interconnection is more optimized.

The China-Europe Express trains are developing rapidly. In 2020, a total of 12,400 trains will be operated. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Slovakia have become important routes and destinations for China-Europe Express trains.

China and the main ports of Central and Eastern European countries have close logistics exchanges, and the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line is being formed at an accelerated pace.

  Local cooperation is deepening.

Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province actively promotes the construction of the 17+1 economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone, and regards Central and Eastern European countries as the key direction of expanding opening up; Cangzhou City, Hebei Province established the China-Central and Eastern European SME Cooperation Zone to promote aviation, agriculture, high-end manufacturing and other fields Cooperation; Liaoning Province is actively creating a 17+1 economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone in the coastal economic belt.

  Gao Feng said that in the next step, China is willing to work with the Central and Eastern European countries to gather cooperation forces, raise the level of cooperation, further release the cooperation potential, and push the 17+1 economic and trade cooperation to a new level.