Li heads west on opening-up tour

English>>Foreign Affairs

Editor's Pick

By ZHAO YINAN and MO JINGXI (China Daily) 08:57, November 25, 2013

Email|Print|Comments

twitter

facebook

Sina Microblog

Children play on a merry-go-round in front of a newly-opened Chinese shopping mall in Bucharest, Romania, in this file photo. LIN HUIFEN / XINHUA

Premier Li Keqiang begins a visit to Romania and Uzbekistan on Monday, as he promotes China's new opening-up policies and seeks new economic opportunities.

Li will pay an official visit to Romania beginning on Monday and attend a meeting of leaders from China and Central and Eastern Europe in the Romanian capital Bucharest. He will also attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization prime ministers' meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Thursday and Friday.

The trip will be Li's first visit to Eastern Europe since he took office in March, and also marks the first visit of a Chinese premier to Romania in 19 years.

A string of economic agreements and contracts are expected to be signed during his visit, said Zhang Xiangchen, assistant minister of commerce.

A number of projects, such as the construction of highways and power plants, are also being considered, and China is planning to expand imports of dairy and agricultural products from Romania, he said.

The agreement, which aims to facilitate road transportation among the SCO members, is expected to be signed at the 12th prime ministers' meeting of the SCO member states. According to the agreement, an Asia-Europe transportation corridor could be established in 2017, Vice-Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said.

Trade between China and Central and Eastern Europe amounted to $52.1 billion in the first 10 months of this year. Trade between China and Romania totaled $3.3 billion over the same period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

【1】【2】【3】