Joining hands in tapping the potential of profound friendship

Second, build new connectivity corridors. CEECs need more effective investment to fend off the impact of the global financial crisis and more input in public goods to improve people's well-being. This makes infrastructure development a pressing task. The quality ports in CEECs, once connected with railways, highways and other transport arteries, will have a major role to play in many fields. For instance, we may develop a new route for coordinated sea-land transportation between China and Europe on the basis of the sea ports and land transport arteries in the Balkans. Such a route will greatly shorten the transport distance between China and Europe and lower the logistics cost of international trade. During my visit, China, Hungary and Serbia reached agreement on the Budapest-Belgrade railway project, under which we will strive to complete the construction of a modern high-speed railway within two years that meets both the EU standards and the needs of all sides. But while making efforts to consolidate hardware facilities, we also need to improve our software environment. China is ready to work with CEECs to facilitate customs clearance. And CEECs are welcome to take an active part in China's initiatives of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Third, explore new space for industrial cooperation. Cooperation in infrastructure and major projects are of great significance and will set fine examples for future cooperation. In recent years, China's technologies in high-speed railways, nuclear power, telecommunications and other areas have advanced rapidly, and China leads the world in the production capacity for steel, cement, plate glass and other construction materials. For CEECs, building major transport and IT projects requires more engineering machinery, upgraded equipment and locally produced raw materials. We enjoy broad prospects for cooperation in this regard. China is ready to build plants in CEECs by utilizing its advanced production capacity and equipment, which will help generate more local jobs. It would also be an effective way to cooperate by jointly developing industrial and technological parks. The Central Europe Trade and Logistics Cooperation Zone and Wanhua Industrial Park have now taken shape in Hungary. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and other CEECs have all proposed to build industrial parks. We will actively encourage Chinese companies to take part in this endeavor. We will also expand imports from CEECs and promote the balance of trade through dynamic growth with a view to achieving the target of $100 billion for two-way trade at an early date. We need to make full use of the mechanism of the China-CEEC Local Leaders' Meeting and make sure that the localities play a bigger role in our cooperation.

Fourth, establish a new framework for investment and financing cooperation. To address the existing investment and financing difficulties in our cooperation, China has decided to establish a China-CEEC framework for investment and financing cooperation, consisting of three major elements: First, we will encourage CEECs to continue to make full use of the $10 billion special credit line. Considering the actual financial capacity of various countries, we will, in light of specific projects, provide loans with more preferential terms, lower financing costs and increase credit volume as appropriate. Second, we will encourage Chinese companies and financial institutions to take an active part in the PPP and privatization process in CEECs. China will set up a $3 billion investment fund and facilitate equity investment in countries in the region. Moreover, China will launch the $1 billion China-CEEC Investment Cooperation Fund (Stage Two) in support of investment projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Third, China welcomes the issuance of renminbi denominated bonds in China by CEEC companies and financial institutions and will work to explore the launch of a renminbi fund for investing in Central and Eastern Europe. In this way, we will be able to offer more financing means to projects, thus giving more impetus to China-CEEC cooperation.