Cooperation between China, Central and Eastern Europe bears fruit

BEIJING -- Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) has become closer in multiple areas, including trade and investment, the promotion of China-Europe freight trains and project agreements. 

The following are some highlights of economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries. 

-- China's total trade volume with 17 CEECs reached 103.45 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, crossing the 100-billion-dollar mark for the first time, data from the Ministry of Commerce shows. 

This marked a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent, higher than the growth rate of China's foreign trade and its trade with Europe as a whole. 

Logging an average annual growth rate of 8 percent from 2012, the growth of China's trade with CEECs is three times the growth of its foreign trade and two times the growth of its trade with Europe as a whole. 

-- China's foreign direct investment in the economic sectors of 17 CEECs, including energy, infrastructure, logistics and automobile parts, totaled 3.14 billion dollars by the end of 2020. 

The 17 countries invested 1.72 billion dollars in China during the period. 

-- The number of China-Europe freight trains stood at 12,400 in 2020, with key passages and destinations including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. 

-- Last year, the total contract value of China's newly signed overseas projects with the 17 countries spiked 34.6 percent to 5.41 billion dollars.