A CEEC commodity shopping festival, which serves as an appetizer for the 3rd China-CEEC Expo, which is slated to be held in Ningbo from May 16 to 20, opened in the city's Beilun district on April 18. 

Participants can enjoy a discount of 10 percent when purchasing CEEC goods at a designated shop located on the Fubang Shiji Plaza in the district. They can also apply for coupons, with which one can save up to 60 yuan ($8.72) after spending 200 yuan in the shop, according to the organizers.

Two days earlier, Ningbo also launched an activity to select the top 10 favorite CEEC consumer goods. The 10 commodities, which will be decided by online votes and experts, will be displayed at a permanent pavilion in the city.

Ningbo's ties with CEEC have been improving in recent years amid the city's quest to turn itself into the preferred place for CEEC commodities to enter China.

In 2022, Ningbo's imports from CEEC amounted to 11.15 billion yuan, more than 9 times the value in 2016. In the first two months of this year, the city imported 2.69 billion yuan worth of goods from CEEC, up 84.9 percent year-on-year, official data from Ningbo Customs show.