Source: CNTV    Published: 2015-11-25

Central Europe is a key partner in China`s Belt and Road initiative. The 16 countries attending the meeting in China make up one quarter of the countries in the broad Belt and Road plan.

The Silk Road economic belt starts from Xi`an in central China, and leads to Rotterdam of Netherlands and Venice of Italy. So far 10 Chinese cities have been linked to 11 cities in Europe by over 20 railways. Last month, the cargo trips on these railways exceeded one-thousand.

This is likely to increase because of growing trade. Bilateral trade increased from 40 billion US dollars in 2010 to 60 billion US dollars last year.

Chinese companies have invested over 5 billion US dollars in the 16 countries, and received investment from them of over one billion US dollars.Infrastructure projects now underway include railways connecting Hungary and Serbia, highways in Macedonia, and power stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.