BEIJING — Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) has become closer in multiple areas, including trade and investment, the promotion of China-Europe freight trains and project agreements.

The following are some highlights of economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

— China's total trade volume with 17 CEECs reached $103.45 billion in 2020, crossing the $100-billion mark for the first time, data from the Ministry of Commerce shows.

This marked a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent, higher than the growth rate of China's foreign trade and its trade with Europe as a whole.

Logging an average annual growth rate of 8 percent from 2012, the growth of China's trade with CEECs is three times the growth of its foreign trade and two times the growth of its trade with Europe as a whole.

— China's foreign direct investment in the economic sectors of 17 CEECs, including energy, infrastructure, logistics and automobile parts, totaled $3.14 billion by the end of 2020.

The 17 countries invested $1.72 billion in China during the period.

— The number of China-Europe freight trains stood at 12,400 in 2020, with key passages and destinations including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

— Last year, the total contract value of China's newly signed overseas projects with the 17 countries spiked 34.6 percent to $5.41 billion.