July 08, 2018 - The meeting of the countries that are under the Mechanism “16+1” was held over the last few days in Sofia, Bulgaria. This summit gathered many representatives from the governmental and private sector from countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as representatives from China.
Mechanism “16+1” is the platform for cooperation which was established back in April 2012. It features China and 16 other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The main goal of this platform is to promote the cooperation of China with these sixteen countries. Within this mechanism, and with the general cooperation of Montenegro with China, the key recommendations and focus of interest are certainly trading and investment sectors.
At this meeting, it was concluded that Montenegro is very successful in participating in the Mechanism of Cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (16 + 1) and already has benefits. One of the representatives of Montenegro was the country’s Prime Minister Duško Marković, who had an introductory speech in his address to participants.
“This is another important event after a number of previous important political events that took place this year, in which Montenegro participated. All of this is aimed at improving the economy of the region, providing a higher level of stability, and thus prosperity for the entire region, as well as for Montenegro,” said Marković.
During his stay in Sofia, Prime Minister Marković took an opportunity to meet the Vice President of Chinese company CCCC Sun Ziyu. The two officials concluded that works on the priority section of the Bar-Boljare motorway were very successful and that it is in their mutual interest to continue the works with even greater intensity in order to create the conditions to complete the priority section next year.
The CCCC Vice President stressed the importance of the project for the company, saying that CCCC wants to show its capabilities in Europe by building a priority section of the Bar-Boljare motorway.
The Montenegrin representatives also met with Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Li Kequiang. Officials of two countries noted that the two countries cherish high-quality relations and that they are constantly progressing and that both countries see room for further progress of cooperation in the areas of transport infrastructure, energy and agriculture.
The Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the works on the priority section of the Bar-Boljare motorway were in full swing. Speaking about the continuation of the construction of the motorway, Li said that he was confident that the Chinese companies will be sufficiently competitive and make good offers.
