Investment, health tourism and better business cooperation are the most important topics of the 4th international ministerial conference "China +16", which started in the southern Adriatic resort of Dubrovnik on Wednesday, bringing together over 100 participants. Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli underscored the enormous potential of the Chinese market, saying that China ranks second in the world in terms of travelling abroad.
"Chinese tourists account for one fifth of the global tourism and last year alone 12.4 million Chinese visited Europe, which is why central and eastern European counties see an enormous growth potential in China. That is why this form of cooperation is an integral part of cooperation between China and the EU. With this we are sending a positive signal to the world regarding support to free trade," Cappelli said at the conference, held at the level of tourism ministers.
The China +16 format is an initiative by the People's Republic of China aimed at intensifying and expanding cooperation with 11 EU Member States and 5 Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia) in the fields of investment, transport, finance, science, education, and culture. In the framework of the initiative, China has defined three potential priority areas for economic cooperation: infrastructure, high technologies, and green technologies.
Cappelli announced that a meeting of the China +16 prime ministers would be held in Croatia in 2019.
He recalled that total trade among members of the China +16 initiative in 2017 amounted to EUR 58 billion, adding that China planned a number of infrastructure projects worth billions of euros in the key sectors of transport and energy.
He also said that the Croatian National Tourism Board would open an office in Shanghai by the end of the year.
Chinese Minister of Tourism and Culture Luo Shugang said China had recorded a large growth in the tourism economy, which helped boost the national economy.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto recalled that Chinese tourists were good spenders and that given that tourism made up a large portion of GDP of countries in the region, it was important to make the region more attractive to the Chinese.
Montenegrin Sustainable Development and Tourism Minister Pavle Radulovic said the conference was a great opportunity for central and eastern European countries to jointly present their services on China's large market. (Hina)
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