瞄准中东欧的未来

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在国际经济复苏基础薄弱的背景下，中国与中东欧国家经贸合作却快速升温。继2011年在匈牙利布达佩斯成功举办第一届中国—中东欧16国经贸论坛之后，2012年4月，第二届中国—中东欧经贸论坛在波兰华沙举行，时任国务院总理温家宝在会上提出了促进双边合作的12项举措，同时宣布中国决定设立100亿美元的专项信贷额度。这些举措为中国企业走向中东欧市场注入了动力。

中东欧是个“新”市场，一方面中东欧市场是新兴市场，另一方面，对于中国企业来说，中东欧也是一个相对较新的市场，进入该市场的经验并不多。目前，双边贸易额和投资快速增长，中东欧已成为中国企业走出去的重要地区。

并不陌生的中东欧地区

说起中东欧国家，中国人并不陌生。从波罗的海到多瑙河，从肖邦到居里夫人，从“瓦尔特保卫萨拉热窝”到“鼹鼠的故事”，这片分布着16个国家、生活着1.25亿人口、面积占欧洲土地总面积三分之一的广袤土地，从来不乏灵秀和美丽。

九十年代后，中东欧国家开始了政治、经济和社会的全面转型，希望通过利用欧洲发达国家的经验、技术和资金得到发展，开创和平、繁荣和稳定的新生。

经贸关系由来已久

中东欧国家与中国经贸关系由来已久，往来频繁。近年来，中国与中东欧国家贸易和投资高速增长。据中华经济发展协会副会长楼颂森介绍，2001年，中国与中东欧16国贸易额仅为43亿美元，到2011年达到了529亿美元，年均增长27.6%。国际金融危机以来，双方贸易逆势而上，中国从中东欧国家进口年均增长30%。

来自中国海关的数据显示，2011年中国同中东欧13个国家的贸易额达到了489亿美元，其中出口365亿美元，进口124亿美元，分别增长了18.8%、13.6%和37.3%。2012年1～7月，中国与13个国家双边贸易额达到了372亿美元，但是1～7月中国自中东欧国家进口保持了14.8%的增长速度。从2011年数据来看，中东欧13国中，与中国贸易额最大的是波兰，达130亿美元；其次是捷克100亿美元、匈牙利93亿美元、斯洛伐克60亿美元、罗马尼亚44亿美元。这5个国家贸易额占中东欧国家与中国贸易额的绝大多数，达到80%～85%。

同时，双方投资日趋活跃，中国企业在中东欧地区的投资已涵盖化工、机械、家电、电信、汽车和新能源等行业，并向农业、金融、科技等领域扩展，发展潜力巨大。

据不完全统计，截至2011年底，中国对中东欧地区的投资超过30亿美元，包括餐饮、化工、机械、彩电、自行车、医药、木材加工、纺织、农业等领域。具体来看，在波兰，2004年TCL集团在当地投资4730万美元建电视机厂；苏州胜利精密制造有限公司投资2290万美元设立了电子生产厂、2012年1月广西柳工收购了波兰1个钢铁厂的工程机械业务，涉及金额6000万美元。

此外，中国在罗马尼亚投资超过4亿美元，主要有中烟国际欧洲公司卷烟生产厂，3000万美元；宁夏东辉公司设立了自行车生产厂，1000万美元。2011年初，烟台万华以12.3亿欧元的价格收购了匈牙利博苏化工公司，这不仅在中东欧是最大的收购项目，在欧洲也是最大的收购项目。在捷克，长虹集团投资1亿美元建立了生产厂，上海梅林正广和集团设立了罐头厂，涉及1000万美元。长城汽车在保加利亚组建了组装厂。中兴通信和华为基本上在每个国家都建立了公司或代表处，在市场开拓方面成绩显著。

缺乏了解的“新”市场

尽管双边贸易和投资意愿强烈，但中国企业与中东欧国家之间尚缺乏了解。中东欧市场对于中国企业来说还是比较新的市场，进入相对陌生的市场，会遇到一些可以预料的困难。

据介绍，中东欧国家对基础设施建设项目招投标、工程施工、技术规范方面有严格细致的法律规定，而且标书通常使用当地的文字，这对中国企业了解当地的法律法规、准备招标文件带来一些影响。中国企业对欧洲公司联营、公司合营等运作模式不太熟悉，对当地的语言文化、市场制度标准和法律制度还不太适应。

值得中国企业注意的是，中东欧市场准入和技术准入条件较高。比如，企业资质和工程技术人员的职业资格，必须符合当地的技术规范和标准要求，而中企人员取得相应的资质需要通过当地的相关考试。中国企业建筑机械和建筑材料进入当地市场必须要通过欧盟的CE认证，或者当地的认证等。

由于语言、文化习俗等方面的差异，在一定程度上影响了中方管理人员与当地业主及工作人员的沟通和交流。

贸易空间有待进一步打开

尽管中国与中东欧之间贸易额增长迅速，但是放在整个欧洲贸易量中并不突出。欧盟是中国第一大贸易伙伴，2011年双边贸易额达到5672.1亿美元，这样算来，中东欧16国与中国贸易额（529亿美元）仅占9.3%。由此可见，双边贸易空间有待进一步打开。

据悉，中东欧国家农业发展条件好，工业基础普遍比较雄厚，主要优势产业包括农业、葡萄酒加工、木材加工、乳制品和食品加工、服装纺织业、制鞋业、皮革加工、采矿、汽车、造船、机械制造、电子电器、精密光学仪器、制药和生物制剂、通信技术等。

近年来，中东欧国家为了提振经济，在基础设施建设方面加大了投入力度，迎来了基础设施建设高潮。主要涉及公路、桥梁、铁路、机场、港口、地铁、输气管道、光缆传输等领域，还有市政建设，包括排水建设、酒店建设等。而中国经过几十年的发展，企业在基础设施建设方面积累了丰富的技术和管理经验，中东欧建设大潮为中国企业提供了机会。

去年4月在波兰华沙举行的中国—中东欧经贸论坛，为中国企业进入中东欧市场带来了政策上的好处。温家宝在会上提出的12项举措中，包括设立总额100亿美元的专项贷款，其中配备一定比例的优惠性质贷款，重点用于双方在基础设施建设、高新技术、绿色经济等领域的合作项目，中东欧16国可向中国国家开发银行、进出口银行、工商银行、中国银行、建设银行和中信银行提出项目申请；中方将向中东欧地区国家派出“贸易投资促进团”；推动中国企业在未来5年同各国合建1个经济技术园区；与中东欧16国积极探讨货币互换、跨境贸易本币结算以及互设银行等内容。

目前，中国—中东欧国家合作秘书处已经成立，同时100亿美元专项贷款也正式启动。在双方的努力下，“力争中国与中东欧16国贸易额至2015年达到1000亿美元”的目标并不是梦。

In the background of a weak international economic recovery foundation, China’s economic and trade cooperation with central & eastern European countries is warming up rapidly. After the first China-Central and Eastern European Countries Economic and Trade Forum in Budapest, Hungary,was successfully held in 2011, the second China-Central and Eastern European Countries Economic and Trade Forum was celebrated in Warsaw, Poland in April 2012 and the former Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council proposed 12 measures for promoting the bilateral cooperation at the forum and also announced China’s decision to set up a USD 10 billion credit line. These measures have injected power into Chinese enterprises’ entry into the central & eastern European market.

Central & eastern Europe is a “new” market for two reasons. On the one hand, the central & eastern European market is an emerging market; on the other hand, the central& eastern European market is also a relatively new market for Chinese enterprises which have little experience in this market.At present, the bilateral trade turnover and investment are increasing rapidly and central & eastern Europe has become a significant region for Chinese enterprises to go out to.

Acquainted Central & Eastern European Region

The Chinese people are acquainted with the central &eastern European countries. From the Baltic Sea to the Danube,from Chopin to Madame Curie as well as from “Walter Defends Sarajevo” to “The Story of the Little Mole”, we are familiar with the central & eastern European region with an area of one third of Europe’s total land area and no lack of loveliness along with beauty, where there are 16 countries distributed and a population of 125 million living.

Since the 1990s, the central & eastern European countries have been in the progress of comprehensive political, economic and social transformation, hoping to develop by utilizing the developed European countries’ experience, technologies and funds and initiate a peaceful, prosperous and stable rebirth.

Long-standing Economic and Trade Relations

The central & eastern European countries have been in long-standing economic and trade relations and have held frequent intercourse with China. In recent years, the trade and investment of the central & eastern European countries and China have been growing at high speeds. According to Lou Songsen, vice present of the China Economic Development &Exchange Association, the trade turnover between China and the 16 central & eastern European countries was only USD 4.3 billion in 2001 and increased to USD 52.9 billion in 2011, with an annual average growth rate of 27.6%. Since the international financial crisis, the trade between the two sides has gone up against the negative situation and the annual average growth rate of the amount of China’s imports from the central & eastern European countries is 30%.

The data from the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China show that the trade turnover between China and the 13 central & eastern European countries reached USD 48.9 billion in 2011, including an amount of exports of USD 36.5 billion and an amount of imports of USD 12.4 billion, with an increase of 18.8%, 13.6% and 37.3%respectively. The bilateral trade turnover between China and the 13 countries arrived at USD 37.2 billion in the period from January to July 2012; however, the amount of China’s imports from the central & eastern European countries maintained a growth rate of 14.8% in this period. Seen from the data of 2011,among the 13 central & eastern European countries, Poland was the one to have the largest trade turnover with China,with a turnover of USD 13.0 billion, while Czech, Hungary,Slovakia and Romania came next, with a turnover of USD 10.0 billion, USD 9.3 billion, USD 6.0 billion and USD 4.4 billion respectively. The trade turnovers of these 5 countries accounted for the majority (as high as 80%～85%) of the total trade turnover between China and the central & eastern European countries.

At the same time, the bilateral investment is increasingly active and the scope of investment by Chinese enterprises in the central & eastern European region has covered such industries as chemical engineering, machinery, household appliances, telecommunication, automobile, and new energy and is expanding to the fields of agriculture, finance, science &technology, etc., with tremendous development potentials.

According to the incomplete statistics, China’s investment in the central & eastern European region exceeded USD 3.0 billion by the end of 2011, covering the fields of catering,chemical engineering, machinery, color television, bicycle,medicine, wood working, textile, agriculture, etc. Specifically speaking, in Poland, TCL Group made an investment of USD 47.30 million therein in construction of a television factory in 2004, Suzhou Victory Precision Manufacture Co., Ltd. made an investment of USD 22.90 million in construction of an electronics factory, and Guangxi Liugong Group acquired the engineering machinery business of an iron and steel works in Poland in January 2012, with an amount of USD 60.00 million.

In addition, China invested more than USD 400 million in Romania and mainly had a China Tobacco International Europe Company cigarette factory constructed with an investment of UDS 30.00 million; Ningxia Donghui Sports Facilities Co., Ltd.built a bicycle factory with an investment of USD 10.00 million.At the beginning of 2011, Yantai Wanhua Group acquired Hungary BorsodChem at a price of 1.23 billion euros, which was not only the largest acquisition project in central & eastern Europe but also the largest one in Europe. In Czech, Changhong Group invested USD 100 million in construction of a factory and Shanghai Mailing Aquarius Co., Ltd. established a cannery with an investment of USD 10.00 million. Great Wall Motors built an assembly plant in Bulgaria. Both ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. have basically established a subsidiary or representative office in each country and made outstanding achievements in terms of market development.

Unknown “New” Market

In spite of a strong desire for bilateral trade and investment, there is a lack of understanding between Chinese enterprises and the central & eastern European countries.The central & eastern European market is a comparatively new market for Chinese enterprises and it is inevitable to encounter some predictable difficulties in entering a relatively unacquainted market.

It is said that the central & eastern European countries have rigorously meticulous legal provisions on the tendering and bidding, engineering construction and technical specifications for infrastructure construction projects and that all documents should be prepared in the local languages, which brings about some impacts on the Chinese enterprises’ understanding of the local laws & regulations and preparation of relevant documents.Chinese enterprises are not quite familiar with the modes of European company affiliation and joint operation and are not fully adaptive to the local languages, cultures, market system standards and legal systems yet.

What is noteworthy to Chinese enterprises is that the central & eastern European market and technical access conditions are relatively high. For example, both the enterprise qualifications and the occupational qualifications of engineering technical personnel must comply with the requirements of local technical specifications and standards and the personnel of Chinese enterprises must pass relevant local examinations to obtain corresponding qualifications. The construction machinery and materials of Chinese enterprises must pass the European Union’s CE certification or the local certification to enter the local market.

Differences in the languages, cultures and customs affect the communication and exchange between the management personnel of Chinese enterprises and the local employers &working personnel to some extent.

Trade Space to Be Further Opened Up

Although the trade turnover between China and the central& eastern European countries is growing quickly, it is not quite prominent in the whole European trade volume. The EuropeanUnion is the first large trade partner of China. In 2011, the bilateral trade turnover reached USD 567.21 billion and in this way, the trade turnover (USD 52.9 billion) between China and the 16 central & eastern European countries accounted for 9.3%only. It can be seen that the bilateral trade space is to be further opened up.

It is reported that the central & eastern European countries are endowed with favorable agricultural development conditions and comparatively solid industry foundations in general, with the main advantageous industries including the agriculture, wine processing, wood working, dairy product and food processing, clothing and textile, shoe manufacturing,leather processing, mining, motor vehicle, shipbuilding,machine manufacturing, electronic and electric appliances,precision optical instrument, pharmacy & biological agent,communication technology, etc.

In recent years, the central & eastern European countries have enhanced the investment efforts in terms of infrastructure construction for the purpose of vigorous economic growth and have ushered in an infrastructure construction peak.The main scope of infrastructure construction covers the fields of highway, bridge, railway, airport, port, subway, gas transmission pipeline, optical fiber cable transmission as well as municipal construction including water supply & drainage and hotel construction, etc. With China having experienced several decades of development, Chinese enterprises have accumulated rich technical and management experience in the infrastructure construction; the central & eastern European construction peak provides the Chinese enterprises with a valuable opportunity.

The China-Central and Eastern European Countries Economic and Trade Forum celebrated in last April in Warsaw,Poland, brings policy bene fits for China’s entry into the central& eastern European market. The 12 measures proposed by Wen Jiabao at the forum include setting up a USD 10 billion credit line where a certain proportion of preferential loan is allocated to be primarily used for the bilateral cooperation projects in the fields of infrastructure construction, high and new technology, and green economy, etc. The 16 central &eastern European countries can lodge a project application to the China Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of China,Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China,China Construction Bank and China Citic Bank; China will dispatch a “China Trade and Investment Promotion Delegation”to the central & eastern European countries, promote the Chinese enterprises’ joint construction of one economic and technological park with each country in the future 5 years,and discuss progressively with the 16 countries the content of currency swap, cross-border trade settlement in local currency,mutual bank establishment, etc.

Currently, the China-Central and Eastern Europe Cooperation Secretariat has been established and the USD 10 billion special loans have also been officially initiated. With bilateral efforts, the objective of “striving for a trade turnover of USD 100 billion between China and the 16 central & eastern European countries by 2015” will not be a daydream.