Staff showcase characteristic foods from Hungary at a special cultural exchange event - Sweet Date on the Bite - on the sideline of the third China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair, on May 15, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of the expo organizer

Exhibitors from Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) have pinned great hopes on the third China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair, looking forward to opportunities to further expand cooperation with the colossal Chinese market, the Global Times learned on Monday.

"It is our third time attending the expo and we are very much looking forward to establishing connections with high-quality professional buyers and outbound tourism practitioners from all over China," Jonas Huang, an assistant with the Croatian National Tourist Board's Shanghai representative office, told the Global Times on Monday.

"We hope to convey our message through the platform to professional buyers, travel agents and visitors from all over the country: As a very important travel destination in Europe, we attach great importance to the Chinese market, and we are eager to welcome the return of Chinese tourists," Huang said.

Themed "Practical Cooperation for a Shared Future," the third China-CEEC Expo will be held in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, from Tuesday to Saturday. This year's expo has three areas: Central and Eastern Europe Exhibition, International Consumer Goods Exhibition and Imported Commodities Perennial Exhibition, with a total exhibition area of 220,000 square meters.

In the Perennial Exhibition area, more than 50 CEEC trade companies have set up 34 booths, and more than 5,000 products from Central and Eastern European countries will be put on display, including wine, food, cosmetics, crafts and kitchen supplies.

Many new products will be brought to the fair this year, such as Hungarian high-end porcelain and beef, Serbian coffee and crystals from the Czech Republic.

"This time, we brought handmade boutique chocolates and crystals from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and craft beers and honey cakes from the Czech Republic and Poland," Zhang Peng, general manager of CEE Investment and Trade, told the Global Times on Monday.

At the "must-visit" Central and Eastern Europe Exhibition area, food products, wine, dairy products, daily consumer goods, science and technology products and other goods have been arranged and await global purchasers.

Purchase orders worth more than 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) for goods from CEECs are expected to be placed, Li Guanding, a vice mayor of Ningbo, told a press conference on Sunday.

"We are in an era where opportunities and challenges coexist," Li Dongsheng, chairman of leading Chinese electronics producer TCL Technology, said at the seventh meeting of the China-CEEC Business Council in Ningbo on Monday.

As global economic growth is slowing down, anti-globalization trends are rising, and unilateralism and protectionism are escalating, the process of economic globalization has entered a new phase of in-depth adjustment and transformation, Li said.

As the gateway connecting the Eurasian continent, the CEECs are not only an important part of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, but also key partners for China to optimize its foreign economic and trade cooperation, according to Li.

With strong industrial complementarity and high economic and trade compatibility, China and the CEECs have achieved remarkable results and enjoy boundless potential in their cooperation, Li said.

China's imports from the CEECs have grown at an annual rate of 9.2 percent since 2012, data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed. In 2021, China proposed to import commodities worth more than $170 billion from the CEECs in the following five years.

As the first destination for CEEC products to enter China, Ningbo imported 11.2 billion yuan worth of products from the CEECs in 2022, up 47.5 percent year-on-year, Tang Feifan, mayor of Ningbo, told a press conference on May 5.

In the first quarter of 2023, Ningbo's purchases of CEEC products surged 102 percent year-on-year to 4.39 billion yuan.

Aiming to further boost bilateral trade, China's customs has planned to enhance cooperation on clearance facilitation with CEEC customs and speeding up market access for agricultural and food products from the CEECs to come to China.