World Insights: China-CEEC expo unleashes new cooperation potential

An enterprise delegate from Slovenia displays ski equipment at the China-Central & Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Expo in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 16, 2023. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

While CEEC quality products entered China through the expo and complemented domestic demand, China's huge market has provided vast development opportunities for CEEC enterprises.

by Xinhua writers Zhang Yirong, Yin Xiaosheng

NINGBO, China, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The five-day third China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair ended here on Saturday, with participants eyeing new cooperation potential across the platform.

While CEEC quality products entered China through the expo and complemented domestic demand, China's huge market has provided vast development opportunities for CEEC enterprises, Zhang Yadong, director of the Ningbo CEEC expo and cooperation promotion center, told Xinhua.

Through the platform, Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises were presented with new market opportunities, as they docked with quality goods and services resources from CEECs without leaving China, said Shi Qiqi, deputy director of the Department of Commerce of China's Zhejiang Province.

This year's expo attracted more than 400 exhibitors from CEECs and other European countries, with around 3,000 types of new products showcased, ranging from agricultural produce, wines and cosmetics to high-end manufacturing and services products.

"The Chinese market is growing very fast. Young consumers, in particular, are curious about different types of wine," said Liakos Constantinos, a co-founder of Greek trading company Hellenic Agora, which brought 35 different kinds of wine from Greece to the expo.

"We recently launched 'master class' activities combining an introduction to Greece's historic wine culture with wine tasting, which has been very popular. All these give us confidence in the future of our business here," Constantinos said.

An enterprise delegate displays goods from Poland at the China-Central & Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Expo in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 16, 2023. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Andrzej Juchniewicz, chief representative of the Polish investment and trade agency in China, told Xinhua that the 11 Polish companies participating in this year's expo have all been deeply impressed with the Chinese market through frequent close contact with it.

"Polish milk and cookies have gradually entered the daily life of Chinese consumers through the expo," said Juchniewicz. "We hope to bring more quality products to China and expand the market share in gaming, science and technology, and medicine."

Bringing its newly developed biodegradable rubbish bag samples to this year's expo, Ningbo Baojiahua Biomaterials is a young company established at the end of 2022 by Despodov Dimitrov, as he saw the importance China and the EU have both attached to environmental protection.

Noting that the company achieved initial mass production this March, Dimitrov told Xinhua he would like to meet more people at the expo to reach agreements on cooperation and to sell his products in Chinese and European markets in the future.

This year's expo featured a new section on cultural trade, in which a laboratory of digital cultural trade co-founded by Chinese and foreign institutions cooperated with organizations from Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria to host a series of much-trailed cultural exhibitions and performances showcasing CEEC culture.

Yang Chaojie, head of the laboratory, told Xinhua he hopes that cultural trade will become a new growth point for China-CEEC cooperation.

Cultural trade carries much significance for humanistic exchanges, and can become a bridge for cooperation between countries, he said.

This photo taken on May 16, 2023 shows exhibits displayed at the China-Central & Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Expo in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

"Bosnia and Herzegovina has broad prospects for cooperation with China and other CEECs in energy, infrastructure, green economic transformation, and clean energy. We envision more cooperation projects in the future," said Zdravko Marinkovic, president of the Foreign Trade Chamber of the country.

"TCL has cooperated with CEECs for many years," said Li Dongsheng, chairman of Chinese consumer electronics giant TCL.

The company is willing to work with CEEC enterprises to help elevate China-CEEC economic and trade cooperation, by promoting the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing, building scientific research cooperation mechanisms, and accelerating green development and energy transformation, Li added.

(Yu Zhongwen and Wei Donghua also contributed to the story.)■