A night view of downtown Ningbo, Zhejiang province. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

Ningbo, a bustling port city in Zhejiang province, has forged strong economic and trade ties with Serbia in recent years.

The trade volume between Ningbo and Serbia in the first quarter of this year hit 420 million yuan ($58.14 million), marking a 40.6 percent increase from the same period last year. Specifically, imports surged by 289.8 percent to 70 million yuan, while exports climbed by 24.4 percent to 350 million yuan.

On May 8, China and Serbia solidified their partnership as the two nations signed an agreement to build a bilateral community with a shared future in the new era.

In light of the growing Sino-Serbian partnership, Ningbo is gearing up to open an exhibition facility in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, in mid-May. The city aims to capitalize on the burgeoning opportunities by offering attractive settlement terms to local enterprises, with the objective of fostering a more efficient and diversified commercial environment for businesses looking to expand their operations in Serbia.

Ningbo's increasingly close ties with Serbia are a result of its ambition to become a preferred destination for Central and Eastern European goods entering China. In 2023, Ningbo imported $1.9 billion worth of goods from Central and Eastern Europe, which is nine times the amount in 2016, increasing its share of the national total imports from the region from 1.4 percent to 6.3 percent.