Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    OVER 150 company representatives from 12 countries in central and eastern Europe attended a networking meeting held at Wuzhou Guest House yesterday afternoon to seek potential business partners, clients and investors from Shenzhen.

    The meeting was a highlight event for the First Shenzhen-Central and Eastern European Countries Economy, Trade and Culture Forum, which was organized by the Shenzhen Subcouncil of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

    Around 600 company representatives from Shenzhen also attended the meeting. Foreign representatives were seated in 34 tables in a conference hall so that Chinese representatives could find their potential partners at specific tables. Most of them were busy exchanging business cards and handing out company brochures during the meeting.

    Lukas Sirinek, CEO of a public transport company owned by the local government in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, said he is interested in sourcing electric buses from Shenzhen.

    Sirinek and his associates visited BYD, an electric car maker based in Shenzhen, on Monday to take a look at its e-buses. According to Sirinek, BYD has earned its reputation by selling e-buses to public transport operators in other Czech cities.

    Sirinek said his company plans to buy 15 to 20 e-buses, but first of all they have to test these e-buses and see if they could fit in with the public transport conditions in Karlovy Vary.

    “I think it’s the future of public transport,” he said. Currently, Sirinek’s company only uses CNG buses powered by gas. Even though the cost of e-buses will be higher than CNG buses, the cost of electricity is lower than gas and the low-carbon emissions from e-buses will benefit the city’s environment, Sirinek said.

    Andrea Pekarik, purchasing executive of Pekarik Machine Trading Ltd. from Hungary, said her company imports machinery from all over the world and sells them to production companies in Hungary. “About 50 percent of our imports are coming from China,” she said.

    Pekarik said most of her company’s suppliers are located in Shanghai, and she is looking for more suppliers in Shenzhen because she has confidence in the quality of machinery produced in Shenzhen.

    Gediminas Miknys, head of the purchase and logistic department of Naujoji Ringuva, one of the largest manufacturers of household cleaning products in Lithuania, also attended the meeting. He said the company is looking for potential suppliers and manufacturing partners in China.

    Miknys said the company is purchasing soap noodles, a raw material of soap, from Malaysia, but they are looking to find new suppliers from China. He said the prices of some assembly parts for cleaning products such as plastic pumps, trigger sprayers and plastic caps are lower in China.