China-CEEC expo to open in East China

NINGBO - The third China-CEEC Investment and Trade Expo will be held in East China's Zhejiang province in June, with more items on display compared with previous events.

Business people from 16 Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries will attend the expo, jointly organized by China's Ministry of Commerce and the Zhejiang provincial government, in Ningbo city from June 8 to 12.

The display space of this year's event will be 50 percent larger and the number of exhibited products will be 80 percent more than the last expo, said Zhang Wenhu with the organizing committee on Wednesday.

More than 240 foreign enterprises have applied for 272 booths.

Exhibits in previous events were transported to Ningbo by air or sea, but this year many arrived by train service.

The CEE countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Poland and the Czech Republic, are important components of the Belt and Road, which refers to the modern Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.

Trade between China and 16 CEE countries rose to $56.2 billion in 2015 from $43.9 billion in 2010. From January to November 2016, the volume grew by 4.5 percent year-on-year, reaching $52.9 billion.