The 18th National Coordinators' Meeting for China-CEEC Cooperation was held in Ningbo on May 24. On the afternoon of May 23, Mr. TANG Feifan, Mayor of Ningbo, met with the attendants who were senior officials and diplomatic envoys to China of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Mr. TANG Feifan extended a warm welcome to all the guests for their visit to Ningbo. He said that this year marked the 10th anniversary of Ningbo's in-depth participation of China-CEEC Cooperation. Over the past decade, with the support of CEE partners, Ningbo's cooperation with CEE countries had witnessed an increasingly good momentum. As an important global port city and a China's major city of opening-up, foreign trade and manufacturing, Ningbo had played an important role as a hub in China-CEEC Cooperation. He hoped that all partners would continue to support Ningbo in hosting the China-CEEC Expo and jointly build the Expo into an important portal for CEEC products to enter the Chinese market and for Chinese enterprises to enter the CEE countries; continue to support Ningbo in building the China-CEEC Business Cooperation Demonstration Zone and further strengthen interactions to deepen cooperation and achieve mutual benefit in the fields of international shipping, merchandise trade and enterprise investment; and continue to support Ningbo in deepening and expanding exchanges and cooperation with all circles of Central and Eastern Europe and further facilitate personnel exchanges to increase the channels for people-to-people exchanges.

CEEC government officials and diplomatic envoys to China said that Ningbo was a beautiful city full of vitality, and it provided warm hospitality for visitors both old and new. They looked forward to maintaining sound long-term relationships for cooperation with Ningbo, establishing deep friendly bonds, and taking the opportunity of the next China-CEEC Expo to advance cooperation to a new level.

H.E. Mme. Amb. JIANG Yu, Special Representative for China-CEEC Cooperation of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. LI Guanding, Vice Mayor of Ningbo, Mme. YE Miao, Director of Administrative Committee of Ningbo Economic & Technical Development Zone, and Mr. ZHU Jinmao, Secretary-General of Ningbo Municipal Government, attended the meeting.