Today, the Minister of Finance in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Sinisa Mali, participated in the online meeting of national coordinators for cooperation in the China-CEEC mechanism.
The Minister pointed out that Serbia is firmly committed to further strengthening and development of cooperation within this mechanism, and added that the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, accepted the invitation of the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping to participate in the upcoming 9th China-CEEC Summit.
It will be held in video format on February 9 this year.
“We are convinced that the Summit will contribute to preserving the continuity of the dialogue at the highest political level and set new directions for the development of cooperation in this mechanism,” Mali said.
As the national coordinator for cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, Sinisa Mali stated that, despite the Covid 19 pandemic, there was a further strengthening of bilateral strategic cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and the People’s Republic of China, as well as cooperation within the 17 + 1 mechanism.
Regardless of the pandemic, Chinese companies in Serbia continued to work on the implementation of agreed projects, he explained.
“I especially single out the project of modernization of the railway on the route Belgrade-Budapest, continuation of works on the construction of sections of the highway, as well as on projects in the field of energy, and in October 2020 a contract was signed on construction of the Novi Sad – Ruma highway,” said Mali and added that intensification of cooperation in the field of agriculture, education, science and technology, innovation is expected…
Mali emphasized that in addition to solidarity, the pandemic also pointed out the importance of greater connections between countries in every sense, and thanked for the help in medical equipment, which was sent to our country during the pandemic.
He added that the multi-modal infrastructural connection between the countries is extremely important in the fight against Covid 19, but also in order to speed up the economic recovery in the post-pandemic period.
“The fastest possible construction of the Chinese-European Express Maritime-Land Railway, part of the ‘Belt and Road’, within which the Belgrade-Budapest railway modernization project is underway, will enable even faster transport of goods and better connection between China and many Asian countries with Europe,” said Mali.
He also referred to the new phase of the global fight against the virus – mass immunization.
“We are glad that Serbia is the first country in Europe to receive vaccines from the company ‘Sinofarm’ on January 17 this year, on the production of which the most eminent Chinese scientists worked,” Mali explained.
He congratulated the citizens of the People’s Republic of China on the upcoming lunar New Year on February 12, 2021, and wished all participants in the meeting even better cooperation within the China-CEEC mechanism, B92 reports.
