The Huo-Yan laboratory Photos: BGI

Chinese genomics firm BGI will help build two COVID-19 testing labs in Serbia, in an effort to improve the country's testing ability to fight against the  coronavirus, according to an agreement signed with the Serbian government on Wednesday.

The agreement between BGI and Serbia was signed during an online video conference supported by Chinese tech firm Tencent on Wednesday. Serbian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Branislav Nedimovic signed the deal with Zhu Yanmei, executive director of the BGI Group, and Li Ning, BGI's vice president.

The signing ceremony was also witnessed by Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia Ana Brnabic and Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo, among other guests.

Chen Bo said the Chinese Embassy will "help both the Serbian and Chinese sides to have these laboratories constructed as soon as possible."

The two labs, one in Serbia's capital city Belgrade and the other in the southern city of Nis, will achieve a daily test of 3,000 - tripling the country's current testing capability, revealed a statement on the website of Serbian government.

The Serbian government will send a chartered plane to China to transport BGI's technical experts and equipment, BGI said in a statement it sent to the Global Times on Thursday.

The experts, who will help train local medical staff and set up the laboratories, are anticipated to arrive in Serbia early next week. The Belgrade laboratory is expected to open in mid-April within the Clinical Centre of Serbia. The laboratory in Nis is being built from scratch and will take roughly one and a half months to complete.

BGI has built more than a dozen such laboratories across China, which later proved to be one of the crucial steps in China's strategy of fighting the epidemic outbreak. It is also negotiating with governments or partners in more than 10 countries for the construction of testing labs, according to BGI.

Serbia reported its first COVID-19 case on March 6 and declared a state of emergency 10 days later. Serbia has more than 2,600 confirmed cases so far. 

China dispatched six doctors, donated ventilators and medical masks to Serbia on March 22. Earlier on March 16, the first batch of medical aid from China to Serbia, which is also the very first donations Serbia received from foreign countries, arrived in Belgrade.