The high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Senegal has yielded fruitful results

Serbia is an important cooperation partner of China in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative and a core hub country for promoting connectivity cooperation in the Western Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe. Over the past 10 years, the Belt and Road Initiative has continued to deepen its synergy with Serbia's re-industrialization and Serbia's Vision 2025 national strategies, and China-Serbia economic and trade cooperation has yielded fruitful results under the framework of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, helping Serbia become a model and benchmark for the Belt and Road cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe.

Infrastructure development has continued to improve. As a major part of our economic and trade cooperation, our infrastructure cooperation has produced exemplary results and achieved several "firsts". The Zemon-Borza Bridge across the Danube River in Belgrade became the first bridge built by a Chinese company in Europe; Serbia's E763 highway is the first highway built by Chinese enterprises in Europe. In 2023, Serbia purchased five high-speed bullet trains from China and will run on the completed Hungary-Serbia railway, which is the first time for a European country to purchase high-speed trains produced in China.

The scale of trade continues to expand. China has been Serbia's largest importer and second largest trading partner for many years in a row. Bilateral trade has increased eightfold in the past 10 years, reaching 4.35 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Serbia firmly seized the opportunity of the opening up of China's hypermarket and participated in the CIIE for six consecutive sessions. In the past 10 years, Serbia's exports to China have increased by 185 times, and exports of competitive products such as wine, juice, cheese, cereal, honey, jam, meat and black truffle to China have strongly boosted employment and income of the Serbian agricultural population.

Production capacity cooperation continues to deepen. In 2022, China will become the largest source of direct investment in Serbia, and bilateral cooperation in domestic capacity will continue to deepen. In 2016, China River Steel Group acquired the Smederevo steel plant to establish River Steel Group Serbia Steel Company. In less than half a year, the Smedarevo steel mill, which had suffered losses for seven years, turned a profit and became Serbia's largest export enterprise for four consecutive years, not only keeping the jobs of 5,000 local employees, but also driving nearly one-fifth of the town's more than 100,000 people to employment, writing the good story of "a factory with a living city" and "one family in China and Serbia". Serbia Zijin Mining Company, Hesteel Serbia Iron and Steel Company, Serbia Zijin Copper Company three Chinese enterprises have become Serbia's top three export enterprises. Cooperation with China has helped Serbia's economy grow at a high speed, with the latest forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicting that after 2.5 percent growth in 2023, Serbia's economy will grow by 3.5 percent in 2024 and 4.5 percent in 2025.

The Belt and Road cooperation between China and Serbia has gone through a glorious journey of 10 years and now stands at a new starting point once again. In the new decade, the China-Serbia Belt and Road Initiative will promote high-quality development of economic and trade cooperation at a higher level and on a larger scale.

First, we need to continuously improve the trade structure between China and Senegal. Take the China-Serbia Free Trade Agreement signed on October 17, 2023 as an opportunity to give full play to its advantages as the first free trade agreement signed between China and Central and Eastern European countries, push bilateral economic and trade cooperation to a new level and inject greater impetus into global free trade; Further expand the scale of trade with Serbia, optimize the trade structure, and further expand the import of high-quality Serbian goods through the CIIF, Silk Road e-commerce and other channels, so as to make the trade structure more balanced and healthy; We will seize the opportunity presented by Serbia's commitment to a higher level of opening-up in manufacturing, construction, information and communication, and encourage Chinese enterprises to better explore the Serbian market and the markets in Central and Eastern Europe and Europe.

Second, continue to expand cooperation on green economy. "Serbia's Vision 2025" sets the realization of a green and circular economy as an important goal. China has industrial and technological advantages in green economy. We should give full play to the driving role of the "Green Silk Road", increase the proportion of new infrastructure investment, and help Serbia's green transformation and development. Take the Expo 2027 in Serbia as an opportunity to accelerate China-Serbia cooperation in the construction of green venues; We will speed up the construction of transport infrastructure and environmental protection facilities such as the Hungary-Serbia railway undertaken by Chinese enterprises to improve local transport efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable economic development. Make cooperation in photovoltaic, new energy vehicles and other fields a new growth point of China-Senegal economic and trade cooperation.

Third, continue to promote cooperation in the digital economy. The Serbian government takes the digital economy, artificial intelligence industry and innovation industry as an important goal, vigorously promotes the digital transformation of the economy, and actively participates in the launch of the "Belt and Road" Digital Economy International Cooperation Initiative. In the future, through the construction of the "Digital Silk Road", China's advanced digital technology will be connected with Serbia's digital transformation needs, and further strengthen cooperation in the development of Internet education, big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing and artificial intelligence platforms; We will vigorously foster the industrial base of the digital economy, accelerate the construction of the China Industrial Park in Belgrade, give priority to high-tech enterprises, attract Chinese high-tech, digital economy, artificial intelligence industry and innovation and development industry enterprises to enter, and train local scientific and technological talents. Further improve the infrastructure construction of digital economy in Serbia, and cultivate new business forms and new driving forces of "Silk Road e-commerce".

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