Online forum discusses new opportunities for Czech companies to enter Chinese market

Officials, economists and entrepreneurs from China and the Czech Republic attending an online forum here on Thursday agreed that China's opening-up policies and economic development provide Czech companies new opportunities to enter the Chinese market.

Wang Jinsong, Economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic, said that China and the Czech Republic are important trading partners for each other. In the trying times since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, China and the Czech Republic have reached out to each other and made sound progress in anti-pandemic cooperation.

He said that bilateral trade has been growing against headwinds and "China will continue to support Czech companies to enter the Chinese market through various channels and platforms such as the China International Import Expo (CIIE), promote bilateral trade cooperation and promote two-way investment."

Richard Hlavaty, Director General of the Department of Foreign Economic Policies II from the Czech Industry and Trade Ministry, focused his discussion on balanced trade.

He said that the Czech Republic considers China a "significant and promising trade partner."

"With the aim to achieve more balanced trade, I believe a broader range of successful export products can find its way to the Chinese market, including such sections (as) environment protection, aviation, health industry, engineering and services. We also want to see more export of high-quality Czech agricultural products," he said.

Yang Yu, head of the Prague branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), said that the ICBC, as the official partner of the 4th CIIE, will continue to organize the China-Europe Entrepreneurs Conference, and will launch a special promotion event at the end of March to woo Czech companies to participate in the 4th CIIE, slated for November in Shanghai this year.

With the theme of "new opportunities of Czech enterprises expansion in the Chinese market," the forum was sponsored by the Association of Chinese-Invested Enterprises in the Czech Republic and the ICBC. More than 70 experts and entrepreneurs from both countries attended the forum.