BEIJING — Vice-Premier Ma Kai met foreign attendees to the 15th Western China International Fair (WCIF) in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province, on Oct 24.

High-profile visitors included Czech President Milos Zeman and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Ma highlighted the 65th anniversary of the establishment of China-Czech diplomatic relations, welcoming Zeman to China and attending the opening ceremony of the 15th WCIF.

He said China regards Czech as an important partner in both European Union (EU) and Central and Eastern European (CEE).China is willing to make joint efforts with Czech to respect mutual core interests and common concern, promote pragmatic cooperation and keep bilateral ties to a long-term, healthy and stable development.

Ma said China’s comprehensive development of the western region will bring opportunities to CEE, including Czech. China hopes the companies of both counties will keep communication and cooperation to realize mutual benefit and win-win results.

Zeman said Chengdu is an important city for tourism and investment, the Czech Republic would like to strengthen cooperation with China’s western region by using the platform such as WCIF to bring new impetus to bilateral ties.

Zeman said Czech also supports the initiative of constructing the Silk Road Economic Belt which was put forward by President Xi Jinping.

When meeting with Raffarin, Ma said he appreciated his contribution to promoting bilateral pragmatic cooperation in recent years and congratulate France to be the guest of honor in the 15th WCIF.

The two sides also exchanged views on further advancing cooperation in various fields between China and France.