Green industry will become a new highlight of China-EU cooperation

"At my request, the students took out their smartphones one after another. Guess what happened? Most people use Huawei phones." In an interview with a reporter from the Economic Daily, former Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Economics Daniela Bobeva, a professor at the institute, recalled a "random quiz in class" she had done not long ago. Bobeva also assigned a task to the students, asking them to "trace the origin" of various supplies in their rooms after returning home, and the results showed that most of the products were "Made in China." Bobeva was not surprised by this. In her view, this is just a microcosm of China's growing economic strength and influence.

Bobeva, who majored in economics, served as director of the Bulgarian Foreign Investment Agency, vice president of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, and deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs before working at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Bobeva said that in Bulgaria, whether in business, politics or academia, people have always welcomed Chinese investors and have high expectations for practical cooperation with China. In 2021, the bilateral trade between China and Bulgaria will increase by 40.8% against the trend, reaching US$4.109 billion, a record high. Huawei, Xiaomi, and Tianjin Agricultural Reclamation have become the "business cards" of Chinese companies in the local area. Chinese companies also frequently appear in new energy projects such as photovoltaics and wind power in Bulgaria.

Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria is the key subject of Bobeva's long-term follow-up research. In the past two years, Bobeva and colleagues from the Economic Research Institute completed and published the report "Bulgaria-China Trade and Investment Relations" by reviewing a large amount of literature and visiting major Chinese-funded enterprises investing and operating in Bulgaria. According to the report, China's investment in Bulgaria has actually promoted local economic growth and created jobs.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the "Belt and Road" initiative, and Bobeva is a staunch supporter of the initiative. Bobeva believes that in Central and Eastern European countries, the construction of the "Belt and Road" has led to the implementation of a number of economic projects with great potential and large scale, and achieved fruitful results. Bobeva pointed out that large-scale overseas investment from China is different from traditional, profit-driven cross-border investment. Most of China's investment projects are implemented with the support of the Chinese government. They are well-planned and have long-term economic benefits. This is why Chinese investment is so popular in Central and Eastern European countries. Bobeva looks forward to speeding up the implementation process of the "Belt and Road" project, and pays attention to improving the economic and financial feasibility of the project.

Looking forward to the future, Bobeva believes that green industry will be a new bright spot in China-Bulgaria and even China-EU cooperation. China is advancing its domestic carbon reduction agenda with firm determination; at the same time, with its huge advantages in the field of green technology, China will surely play an important role in the global green transformation process. For the European Union, renewable energy projects have long been placed at the top of the agenda. Specific to the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Bobeva said frankly that the green transformation of the region depends to a large extent on trade and investment relations with China. Chinese investment is playing an increasingly important role in the construction of photovoltaic industrial parks and wind farms, and hydropower is also an area of high investment interest by Chinese state-owned enterprises in the region. Therefore, there is great potential for cooperation between China and CEECs in the field of green economy.