Chinese vice premier visits Serbia

Chinese vice premier visits Serbia

The Chinese guests, who have met with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, were welcomed at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic.

The goal of the visit of the Chinese delegation is to intensify cooperation to use, to mutual benefit and to the maximum extent possible, the comparative advantages of the two economies and bring economic relations closer to the level of the political and overall relations between the two countries and nations, said a statement from the deputy prime minister's office.

The topics under the authority of Mihajlovic's ministry will be the development of Serbia-China relations as part of multilateral activities known as One Belt, One Road (the new Silk Road), the mechanisms of cooperation between China and 16 central and eastern European countries and the joint intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation.

The Belgrade-Budapest railway project, carried out in cooperation with the Chinese partners, is going according to plan and the talks on project funding will begin soon, Mihajlovic said on Monday.

Mihajlovic noted that the arrival of Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli, who is starting a three-day visit to Serbia on Monday, points to the strong ties between the two countries.

The visit is also important because of the Chinese infrastructure projects in the region, as everything that China has done, and plans to do, in countries in the region relates to infrastructure, and Serbia will be the infrastructure hub, said Mihajlovic, adding that the modernization of Belgrade-Budapest railway will begin in the fourth quarter of 2015.

"Serbia and Hungary have completed the feasibility study for this project and sent it to the Chinese partners, and now the technical and working groups from China, Serbia and Hungary are working jointly to harmonize the study,“ Mihajlovic told reporters at the Serbian government.

“The study will be completed by the end of June and presented in Budapest on July 20,” Mihajlovic announced.

"Very good"

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said in talks with Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli that the relations between Serbia and China are very good, adding that possibilities for major infrastructural projects with the participation of China are not exhausted yet.

"Thank you for having the desire to cooperate with Serbia. We would still be friends even without the economic cooperation. Serbia is committed to its European path, we are organizing our country, fighting against corruption and crime" Nikolic said on Monday, and voiced gratitude to China for respecting Serbia's territorial sovereignty and integrity.

"China has taken part in large infrastructural projects (bridges, roads, railways) and this has not been exhausted yet," Nikolic said at a meeting with the Chinese guest who arrived for a three-day visit to Serbia on Monday.

According to Nikolic's press service, the president said he and Premier Aleksandar Vucic will personally take care of each project from China.

Nikolic also suggested areas for Chinese investments, such as manufacture of trucks and tractors, military industry and the industrial zone near the larger cities.