Bucharest will host meetings between heads of government in the region and the Chinese Prime Minister. A previous summit was organized in Warsaw, Poland, in 2012.
Alongside Chinese Prime Minister and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, the forum will also be attended by the heads of government of Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary and by Latvia’s foreign minister.
The summit will evaluate the implementation of cooperation proposals launched a year ago in Warsaw and will discuss commercial and investment relations between the two regions, through cooperation projects in sectors such as energy, agriculture, infrastructure, transport, IT and tourism.
Beijing sees the region as a gateway to the rich economies of Western Europe, as the former Chinese PM Wen Jiabaou admitted in Budapest in 2011. As for Romania, it is interested in Chinese money mainly for its energy sector – for building reactors 3 and 4 of Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear plant and for building Tarnita-Lapustesti hydro-power station.
Last year the economies of Central and Eastern Europe had a total GDP of $1,400 billion and China had a GDP of $8,350 billion, the world’s second largest after that of the US – $15,700 billion, according to World Bank statistics. In total, China and Central & Eastern European countries accounted for one sixth of the world’s GDP of around $70,000 billion in 2012. Romania had a GDP of $175 billion in 2012.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)