Chinese investment in Europe is an opportunity instead of a threat, senior representatives of news agencies along the route said Sunday during the New Silk Road Forum.
Organized by Greece's Athens News Agency (AMNA), national agency of the Mediterranean country, the forum focuses on the cooperation of news agencies along the Belt and Road and aims at improving communication, facilitating trade and enhancing cultural ties.
Responding to the uninvited worry of some U.S. media on Chinese investment in Greece, Michail Psylos, president of AMP, told Xinhua that "nobody cares about the report."
China-proposed Belt and Road initiative "gives Greece the room and potential to upgrade its own role in the modern world as a member of the European Union," said the president in his opening remarks.
"We think the relationship between China and Greece is of strategic and geopolitical importance, and the news agencies in both countries wish to continue the promotion of the cooperation for it is mutual beneficial for the two countries and the two peoples," he told Xinhua.
Miguel Sanchez, Spain's EFE Agency's director economic and financial sector, said that "we are very happy to see in these days the growing number of Chinese companies in Spain... because Chinese companies are offering more and more high-quality products."
As to the competition between Chinese and local companies, he said that Spain should be creative on this issue, "because it is a way to improve local business."
Responding on the "threat" of Chinese investment hyped by some Western media outlets, he said he is not the right person to comment because he is not a politician.
But he still gave his explanation. China is "growing and becoming more and more competitive each day, the best way to fight against you is to say that you are doing nothing or doing things in the wrong way," he told Xinhua.
Chinese investment is not focused on one country, but is a boon to the economic development of countries in the South Europe, said Nenad Babic, executive officer of Serbia's TANJUG news agency.
"The Belt and Road initiative proposed by the Chinese government has given us a chance to strengthen our relationship in more than just political way. Concrete projects with Chinese investment obviously facilitate that process," said Babic.
"China invested in Serbia's biggest iron producer under the framework of Belt and Road initiative. The construction of the railway connecting Serbia and Hungary will be done also with the financial help of Chinese banks. The railway will connect the south Europe with the Piraeus port in Greece which will facilitate the big trade in the whole region," he told Xinhua.
During the forum, representatives from 25 news agencies agreed to further strengthen the cooperation in such fields as economy, science and technology as well as people-to-people exchanges.
In his speech, Zhang Sutang, vice president of China's Xinhua News Agency, said that Xinhua is willing to cooperate with other news agencies along the Belt and Road to build an information-sharing platform and expand room for media cooperation, so as to play a more active role in building a more beautiful world.
Agencies from China, Greece, Spain, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland, among others, were represented at the forum. At the end of the forum, delegates from the 25 news agencies unanimously approved a joint declaration to enhance relations and strengthen their contacts at all levels.
