BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Some 300 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from China and countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Tuesday held talks online to promote cooperation in production resumption and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
Representatives from the companies discussed cooperation in industry and manufacturing, trade and investment, agriculture, tourism, cultural exchanges and medical care, and they signed 29 memoranda of cooperation and reached 19 cooperation intentions.
The online service platform for the cooperation between SMEs from China and CEE was also officially launched at the meeting.
An official of the Secretariat for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries said in a speech that both China and CEE countries face new challenges in restoring their economies, and SMEs are not only an important source of economic vitality for all countries, but also the main force to support employment.
China is ready to step up information exchanges with CEE countries, build more platforms for SEMs to resume production and carry out cooperation, and minimize the impact of the epidemic on their development, said the official.
Mario Antonic, state secretary of Croatia's Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, said in a video message that the pandemic has affected the world's economic and trade development and global supply chain, and this meeting has set up a new platform of cooperation for CEE and China to cope with the impact of the epidemic and create new opportunities for economic recovery of both sides.
(Edited by Yang Qi with Xinhua Silk Road, kateqiyang@xinhua.org)
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