The Minister also said that the Ningbo Declaration turned out to be comprehensive, balanced and with all parties' interests under consideration. The document highlights the cooperation between China and CEE countries in diverse fields, such as agriculture, e-commerce, high technology and infrastructure construction. In fact, under the 16+1 framework, great achievements have already been made.

Taking Cernavoda nuclear power plant as an example. Last year, China and Romania signed an over seven billion US dollar agreement to jointly build two of its reactors. It is so far the largest project between China and the CEE countries.

Another prominent project is a railway connecting the capitals of Hungary and Serbia. China signed a Memo of Understanding for its construction in 2014. And that particular project is now underway.

Figures from the Customs of China show that, last year, the trade volume between China and the CEE countries exceeded 56 billion US dollars, up about 28 percent in five years. And currently there are about 1,000 enterprises from the CEE countries in China.