On November 5, during the fifth China-CEE (Central and Eastern European) leaders meeting held in Riga, Premier Li Keqiang announced the establishment of China - Central and Eastern Europe Financial Holdings Ltd., which launched China-Central and Eastern European Fund.

During the fourth China-CEE leaders meeting held in Suzhou last November, China proposed to explore a commercialized financial model led by ICBC to support exchange and capacity cooperation among member countries. With the joint efforts of ICBC and domestic and foreign partners, and under the witness of leaders of "16 + 1" countries as well as representatives from political and business sectors, China-Central and Eastern Europe Financial Holdings Limited and China-Central and Eastern Europe Fund are officially established after a year of preparation.

China-Central and Eastern Europe Fund adheres to the principle of "government support, commercial operation, market orientation". It has a scale of 10 billion euros and plans to leverage project credit funds of 50 billion euros. Targeted at CEE countries, it will be appropriately extended to other European regions based on the interests of China and CEE countries. The focus will be placed on investment opportunities in infrastructure construction, high-tech manufacturing, mass consumption and other industries. The fund will integrate the resource from China, CEE and even the world to invite participation of domestic and foreign partners. With global capital and China's power, it will build a regional industry and capital platform to provide leading integrated financial solutions of "investment + commercial bank + investment bank". In terms of fund-raising, CEE countries including Poland, the Czech Republic and Latvia, Chinese and foreign enterprises, financial institutions and various types of private capital providers are actively negotiating on investment. Regarding investment management, in addition to ICBC, it also introduced China Life, Fosun Group, RGM International and other partners with international influence and extensive investment experience. In project reserves, it is actively tracking a number of investment opportunities with great social impact and high economic returns, involving transport and logistics, clean energy, high-tech manufacturing, medicine and health care, food processing.

Jiang Jianqing, the Principal of China-Central and Eastern Europe Financial Holdings Ltd. and China-Central and Eastern European Fund, also the former President of ICBC, said that as an important node of "Road and Belt" initiative, CEE countries enjoy significant geographic and resource advantages, high quality population and solid investment environment. Since the "16 + 1" countries reached the consensus of cooperation in 2012, China and CEE countries have continued to deepen economic and trade exchange and established increasingly diversified and mature mode of cooperation in terms of communication and capacity cooperation. Also, CEE countries are highly market-oriented and complementary to the economy of China,  which is conducive to mutual development. The establishment of China-Central and Eastern Europe Fund can provide more market-oriented and commercialized financial services to meet the growing demand for funds of the capacity cooperation between China and CEE countries, and improve the commercial feasibility of industry investment.

China-Central and Eastern European Fund has taken a crucial step under the "16 + 1" cooperation framework. It will build a financial bridge for exchange and capacity cooperation with innovative services, and strengthen mutual benefits. It will be dedicated to promoting regional economic growth and providing new financial drive for "16 + 1" cooperation.