A video conference attended by business associations from Ningbo and CEEC is held in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Sept 2. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province has been forging increasingly close trade and investment ties with Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) in recent years.

In 2019, imports and exports between Ningbo and CEEC totaled 28.48 billion yuan ($4.12 billion), up 82.6 percent from 2016. 

The number of containers transported between Ningbo Zhoushan port and five ports in the CEEC countries of Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece and Poland reached 652,000 TEUs, an increase of 8.8 percent over 2018. Last year, 16 new two-way investment projects were agreed upon.

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, trade between the two sides edged down 1.8 percent year-on-year to 13.27 billion yuan in the first half of this year, official statistics show.

"The trade volume between Ningbo and CEEC has declined somewhat amid the global battle against the epidemic, but on the whole, the growth rate in recent months has been higher than the national average," said Xu Guangxian, president of the Ningbo Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

He made the remarks while attending a video conference attended by the business associations from Ningbo and CEEC on Sept 2.

"At this difficult time for the global economy, we will work to maintain dialogue with relevant institutions in China and other countries to promote multilateral trade," said Vasil Todorov, secretary-general of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

This year, Ningbo rolled out an action plan to become a demonstration zone for economic and trade cooperation between China and CEEC.

According to the plan, by 2025, the city aims to increase its trade volume with CEEC to $10 billion yuan, accounting for 6 percent of the nation's total, and plans to bring in 100 advanced projects in manufacturing and emerging industries from CEEC, with a total investment of over 20 billion yuan, and recruit 10,000 skilled workers from the region by that time.

Despite the rise in global trade protectionism and a complex international trade situation amid the pandemic, numerous local business representatives attending the conference still expressed a desire to strengthen cooperation with CEEC.

Mao Jianhui, vice general manager of Loctek, a top manufacturer of ergonomic solution products based in Ningbo, revealed that they plan to set up automated plants in places such as Poland in an effort to tap markets in Western Europe.