Qingdao leads China-CEE cooperation

A delegation of high-ranking officials from the city of Qingdao in East China's Shandong province started a tour of Central and Eastern Europe on Sept 14.

The officials visited Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary to promote the Eurasian Economic and Trade Cooperation Industrial Park, an industrial hub in Qingdao that is designed to boost investment and trade among the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Qingdao is looking to use the hub to position itself as a strategic center in the new network of global trade routes China is building as part of the Belt and Road project.

The city on China's eastern coast is already a major port, facing Korea and Japan across the East China Sea and with connections to Central Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Further, Qingdao is now also linked to Europe via the New Eurasian Land Bridge, the new rail network that runs from China through Central Asia to Central and Eastern Europe.

The Eurasian Economic and Trade Industrial Park will seek to take advantage of the city's geographical advantages by promoting the cross-border logistics industry.

Through doing so, it will connect the countries belonging to the China-CEE 16+1 cooperation mechanism, a club composed of China and the 16 Central and Eastern European states, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which consists of China and countries in Central Asia.

The industrial park was promoted at the first China-CEE Development Forum in Warsaw, Poland earlier this year, and attracted great attention from delegates due to its focus on stimulating two-way investment and trade and win-win results.

European officials also welcomed Qingdao’s plans for the park during the talks held this month.

"We are fully aware of Qingdao sincerity for cooperation and we are more pleased to see that this is a big platform for enterprises to carry out two-way cooperation and exchange," said Frantisek Chaloupecky, vice-chairman of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic.

Representatives from the governor of Poland's Rhodes province, the president of the China-Hungary Economic Association and the president of the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry also expressed their willingness to join hands with Qingdao to build a trade channel together.