Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 16+1 China-CEEC Central Bank Governors' Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, on Nov. 9, 2018. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban advocated boosting ties between China and the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) at the meeting on Friday. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
BUDAPEST, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban advocated boosting ties between China and the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) here Friday at a meeting of central bank governors.
"Following the global financial crisis of 2008, a new multilateral economic world order is emerging, and China is the first of the new power centers," Orban said at the opening ceremony of the 16+1 China-CEEC Central Bank Governors' meeting, adding that the second new power center was made up of the CEE countries, which grow faster than Western Europe, and would eventually become the economic engine of the European Union.
"It is a fact that these two centers are joined by railways, and in about two weeks any goods can be sent. And if we build the high-speed train connections from the Greek ports to the heart of Europe, this time will further decrease," Orban explained.
"By bridging these two power centers, we are practically building Eurasia," he underlined.
Turning to the governors of the central banks, Orban told: "The construction of Eurasia demands infrastructures and capital, I think the central banks should help the governments in ideas on how to bring capital or even create capital for these goals."
Orban said that he was just back in Hungary from the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, where he witnessed a "historical moment, namely China defending the idea of multilateralism and the opening of markets."
Hungarian central bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy underlined that the meeting was the first of its kind, adding that "this conference is an exemplary project of the Belt and Road Initiative."
The trade volume between China and the CEEC grew rapidly in recent years, and last year it reached to 68 billion U.S. dollars, said Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank.
Among the reasons of success, he highlighted the following of international rules, the respect for market principles and supportive policies.
Yi told that the next step was the deepening of financial cooperation and the share of information in the framework of 16+1 mechanism.
