On 21st September, H.E. Mr. Hu Zhaoming, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Croatia published the article ''How Can China-Croatia Relations Realize 'Overtaking on the Curve''' in the Croatian mainstream media The Morning Post. The full text is as follows:
Time is flying and it has been 6 months since I assumed the duty of Chinese ambassador in Croatia passed. In these six months, I have visited the easternmost part of Croatia Vukovar-Srijem County and the westernmost Istrian county; I visited Tito's hometown Kumrovec and the old town of Dubrovnik; I met a lot of friends from Senior government officials to workers in the Rijeka port. Croatia has left an excellent first impression on me. I am very happy to be accredited to Croatia and will try my best to develop the friendly relationship between China and Croatia and bilateral cooperation.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Croatia. In the past 25 years, mutual understanding of peoples of the two countries has gradually deepened. Last year, the number of Chinese tourists in Croatia exceeded 100,000 for the first time. Practical cooperation has yielded positive results in various areas. The trade volume between China and Croatia has increased more than 30 times in 25 years. Also, China and Croatia have been respecting and are constantly supporting each other. After Croatia joined the European Union, China has been regarding Croatia as a friend within the EU and a good partner worth relying on.
We should be happy for the progress that China-Croatia relations have achieved in these 25 years; at the same time, we should clearly see there are space in which the two countries can make further efforts. Frankly speaking, the level of trade cooperation between China and Croatia is relatively low and in some areas lags behind the level of cooperation between China and neighboring countries of Croatia. But I'm not pessimistic. On the contrary, I'm really optimistic about the future of the China-Croatia relationship. I believe that, taking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Croatia as the starting point, we just need to capture and fully exploit the new historical circumstances that two countries are facing, and the cooperation between China and Croatia will be able to achieve "overtaking on the curve" fully and thus take advantage of the historic milestone to reach and outpace other countries.
But how can China and Croatia achieve "overtaking on the curve"? In my opinion, there are several aspects we can start from.
Primarily, we should make good use of new platforms, the "Belt and Road Initiative" and "16 + 1" Cooperation. "Belt and Road" is an initiative that Chinese President Xi Jinping personally advocates and promotes. It is the renaissance of the ancient Silk Road. Croatia is on the crossroads of maritime and continental Silk Road and the homeland of Marco Polo, making it enjoying an exceptionally good geographic position within the framework of the construction of "Belt and Road". "16 + 1" cooperation is a new platform for cooperation between China and 16 Central and Eastern European countries, which has kept a tendency for very rapid development since its establishment 5 years ago and both sides have reaped many benefits from it. I hope that Croatia will be more actively involved in the "16 + 1" cooperation and play a leading role in areas in which it has advantage.
Secondly, we should grasp the opportunity of new economy. There has been a big change in the world economy pattern and the new economy is becoming more and more turbulent. In China, online purchases, electronic payments have already become the inseparable part of life. Sharing bicycles, Sharing cars and other forms of shared economy are developing vigorously. China is the country that has invented paper money and maybe in the near future it will also be the first country in the world that not using cash. China and Croatia must step up cooperation in new economic areas, which will bring much benefit to the Croatian people and provide a new impetus to the development of bilateral cooperation in other areas.
Thirdly, we should make full use of the role of new actors. In international cooperation, the government of each country is the main actor while the roles of local provinces, cities and companies, are becoming more important. The population and GDP of my hometown, Yangzhou, are roughly equal to the those of Croatia. The population of Jiangsu Province, where Yangzhou is located, has the similar population to Germany and similar GDP to Spain. Chinese companies like Alibaba, Tencent have already joined the club of large companies with a market value above 400 billion USD. We need to pay more attention to the role of such new actors, to make good use of the local channels of cooperation and to attract more big companies to join the cooperation between China and Croatia.
In addition, the two countries should learn more from each other about the experiences of governing the country. On the first day elected as the highest Chinese leader, President Xi Jinping said the people's wish for a good life is our goal, emphasizing that we should make the widest masses of people enjoy the fruits of economic and social progress. I believe that the Croatian authorities also have the similar ideas in running the country. Cooperation between China and Croatia needs to serve more to the interests of the broad masses of peoples and encourage the peoples of both countries to engage more actively in the exchange and cooperation between the two countries and benefit more from it.
A few days ago, the two sides signed the "Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Croatia on Joint Police Patrol during the Tourist Season". This is the first such memorandum signed by China with one of the 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and it forecasts that Croatia and China might realize ''overtaking on the curve'' in the field of tourism. I believe that as long as we continue making the efforts, bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism, investment and finance will continue bringing good news and we can achieve even more "overtaking on the curve".
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Croatia and the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese Embassy, Istra County and Pula city will jointly organize a grand celebration in Arena Pula in the evening of 29th September. The theme of this celebration event is "Brighter Future Together". We hope that through this event, we will send a clear message to the masses of both countries that if China and Croatia join hands in cooperation, the brighter future is sure to come. We welcome friends from all walks of society to join us at this spectacular event!