2015年CRI Czech PM Calls for Close Ties with China（在线收听）

Czech PM Calls for Close Ties with China

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka is leading a delegation of politicians and business leaders to China this week.

Sobotka says the Czech Republic is now actively promoting the "16+1" mechanism among China and the 16 countries which make up central and eastern Europe, saying the mechanism has a lot of potential for the development of future cooperation.

"In the past three years, the "16+1" cooperation mechanism has been proven to be workable and fruitful, and it has attracted more and more European countries to collaborate with China. For the first time, Austria and Greece have also joined this year's summit as observers, while many other EU member states have showed their interest to the mechanism."

Beyond the usual pledges of broad-based cooperation at these types of meetings, high-speed rail construction has been put forward as a specific area where China can help Central and Eastern Europe develop.

The final touches on an agreement have been made to create a rail link connecting Hungary's capital Budapest with the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

At the same time, the Chinese side has also put forward a plan to give Central and Eastern European countries more access to infrastructure financing, including China becoming part of a European development bank, while at the same time, giving the 16-countries in the CCE grouping preferential access to capital from Chinese banks.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says this should help create closer ties with China's financial system.

"Right now, the Bank of China has set up a branch in the capital city Prague. Now we are looking for more Chinese financial institutions to have their offices in Czech. Yesterday, I have visited the well-known Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and the bank is also considering to expand its overseas business to Czech. As such, we will continue our effort to make Prague a financial hub linking China and Central, Eastern Europe."

Beyond traditional cooperation, which has almost exclusively focused on infrastructure, the Czech Prime Minister says his government needs to foster closer contact with China on an educational level.

"We welcome more Chinese students to study in the Czech Republic. In fact, our country is in need of more Chinese interpreters. Since business contacts have been extended, and more and more Czech cities are establishing partnership with China, there is a high demand for people who can speak both Czech and Chinese."

The Chinese and Czech governments are also looking into setting up a joint science and research institute.

As part of his time in China, Sobotka has also given a lecture at Peking University.

He is also sitting down with Chinese President Xi Jinping before wrapping up his week-long visit to China.

For CRI, I am Wang Mengzhen.