SARAJEVO, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The most visited website Klix in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) published a long interview with Chinese Ambassador to BiH Ji Ping on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on Sunday.
In the interview, the Chinese ambassador mainly introduced the achievements of the BRI and the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF).
When it comes to the China-BiH relations, Ji said that under the background of the BRI and the China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) cooperation, China-BiH relations have achieved all-round development in recent years. The completion and successful operation of the Stanari power station brought the per capita monthly income in the region to 1,210 KM (690 U.S. dollars), making it the highest per capita income in the Republika Srpska (RS), one of the entities in BiH.
The ambassador also mentioned the power plant's strict compliance with EU environmental standards, saying "the smoke is so invisible that long after construction began, locals didn't even know the plant had started".
According to Ji, the total trade volume between the two countries reached 187 million U.S. dollars in 2018, an increase of 37 percent over the previous year. The two countries reached agreements on agricultural cooperation and animal health and quarantine, creating conditions for the export of Bosnian honey and dairy products to China.
In the eyes of the Chinese ambassador, the room for further development of the economic and trade cooperation between China and BiH is still huge. "China is the largest trading partner for over 100 countries. But when it comes to BiH, China is not even among its top five largest trading partners," Ji said.
The interview evoked a warm response among the local people. "Chinese people know and love our movies and respect our culture. They're building a factory here and we want them to succeed," one netizen commented on the website. The comment received more than 200 thumbs up.