Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, together with a business delegation will on Saturday commence a 10-day working trip to the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to create a certain counterbalance to Chinese dominance.
Fiala will be accompanied by a business delegation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Czech Export Bank and other entities to support Czech companies in penetrating local markets, the government said on Thursday.
“Our companies and our country have a good name there, and these countries can, to some extent, create a certain counterbalance against the Chinese dominance. This dominance is obvious, and we have to get rid of it not only as the Czech Republic, but as the whole of Europe, and create alternative markets,” Czech prime minister said.
Fiala will meet with the highest representatives of the aforementioned countries. In the Philippines, he will discuss, among other things, possible deepening of cooperation in the defence industry.
With Indonesia, there lies a significant potential for further cooperation, especially in the defence industry, health care, environmental protection, and transport infrastructure development.
Cybernetics, cyber security, digitisation, new technologies, and artificial intelligence will be among the key topics discussed with Singapore, Czechia’s largest export destination in Southeast Asia.
In Vietnam, the prime minister will launch a Czech-Vietnamese business forum. In Quang Ninh province, Fiala will attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Skoda Auto and Thanh Cong Motor production plant.
For Uzbekistan, Czechia’s second-largest trading partner in the Central Asian region, the delegation will focus on energy, transport and defence matters – issues that will probably also be discussed in Kazakhstan. The aim is to strengthen cooperation in the fields of energy and transport.
Czech efforts to strengthen relations with Asian countries have intensified in recent years.
In March, a large delegation headed by the Speaker of parliament’s lower house, Markéta Pekarova Adamová, travelled to Taiwan – a step that angered Taiwan.
(Ondřej Plevák | EURACTIV.cz)
Source: euractiv.com
