Global Celebrities Give CIIE the Thumbs-up series

Interviewee: Radomil Dolezal, General Director, CzechTrade

As an important trading partner of China, the Czech Republic will participate in the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) to be held in Shanghai this November. The Czech Trade Promotion Agency is now making the preparatory work and helping local exhibitors enter the Chinese market and increase their presence through the CIIE, a big and unified business platform.

Radomil Dolezal, CzechTrade's general director said in an interview that China is the Czech Republic's second-largest source of imports, while as for export, China ranks as the 17th partner. There is still great room for improvement.

“Czech exporters will present their car care products, musical instruments, agricultural and food-processing technologies and products, including the world-famous Czech beer and fine wines. I also noticed that many Chinese tourists came to Czech Republic last year. The travel agencies are not going to stand aside of this expo”, said the general director.

In Dolezal’s opinion, the CIIE is a unified business platform so that the exporters will not need to participate in a lot of fragmented sectorial fairs. And this will improve the efficiency.

“It also needs to make preparatory work in advance. We can help exporters understand the local culture and principles in doing business in China”, he added.

According to European Union data, the Czech Republic exported USD2.4 billion worth of goods in 2017, increasing 26%, while China sent USD11.9 billion worth of commodities, up 12%.