ZAGREB, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- China would like to see more robust and fruitful economic cooperation with Croatia, said Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Hu Zhaoming during a press briefing here on Monday.
"We would encourage more and more people be more practical or pragmatic on cooperation. This is the time we do something real on the ground, for the people... Let's start doing something", said the ambassador.
Hu believes that "China-CEE 16+1 mechanism", a platform created in April 2012 by China and 16 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, is benefiting both sides.
"Many countries are benefiting a lot from that", said Hu, adding that Croatia could take a leading role in areas such as tourism and small and medium-size enterprises.
"This is good, but we hope that Croatia can do more within this platform", said the ambassador.
He welcomed the participation of Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at the China-CEE countries (16+1) summit in Riga last year, only days after his inauguration as the head of the government.
In the Latvian capital, China and Croatia signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the construction of ports and relevant infrastructure.
"Two governments are working on implementing the memorandum... We hope that in the near future we shall have breakthroughs in cooperation in building ports and relevant infrastructure, as well as in other areas", said Hu.
The trade volume between the two countries reached 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, and has increased more than 30 times since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations 25 years ago.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties and Chinese National Day, the ambassador announced a huge celebration will be held at the amphitheatre in Pula on Sept. 29, referring to the Roman-style oval amphitheatre built in 1st century.
The theme of the celebration will be "A Brighter Future Together".
