China says it is up to the Croatian government to decide what it wants.
China is seriously interested in economic and trade cooperation with Croatia and continues to encourage its companies to invest in it, and calls on the Croatian government to offer investment projects and more vigorously support the 16+1 initiative which, along with Croatia, includes another 15 Central and Eastern European countries with which China wants to strengthen economic ties, reports Jutarnji List on 3 July 2017.
“We have exchanged information with the Croatian government and its embassy in Beijing, and we have also visited several excellent Croatian companies,” said Qin Jing, chief executive officer of the Sino-CEE Fund, which China launched to fund projects in this part of Europe.
The fund was founded in November last year in Riga during the 5th summit of the 16+1 initiative. It is an investment fund with private equity capital, state aid, commercial operations and market orientation. The primary investor is China’s banking giant Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which contributed 10 billion euros to the fund. It is one of the world’s largest banks according to the market value and has subsidiaries in more than 30 countries.
Some countries, such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Latvia, have already signed memoranda of understanding on their cooperation with the fund. “We hope that we will soon achieve significant progress in co-operation with Croatia, and we welcome the participation of the government of Croatia and call on it to propose investment projects. The government should establish points of interest and mechanisms for exchange of information and cooperation,” said Qin Jing.
The leaders of the Fund have visited Croatia three times. “We have good relations, but it is up to your government to decide what it wants. We have offered some projects, but big plans do not depend on the investor, but on states and what they want,” said Qin Jing.
“We are ready. We will make working together easier by opening new offices in Europe and building local teams who know the language and culture of individual countries for easier communication and more efficient business operations,” said Qin Jing.
He expressed his conviction that, with the joint support of the two governments and the joint participation of business entities and financial institutions, Croatia will become a major stakeholder in Central and Eastern Europe that is attracting investment and plays an increasingly important role in the 16+1 initiative.
