July 6 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria regional development ministry signed framework agreements on priority transport infrastructure projects with a number of Chinese companies on Friday, it said.
The projects include the Shipka road tunnel in the Balkan mountain range and four motorways: Veliko Tarnovo-Russe, Vidin-Botevgrad, Hemus and Black Sea, the regional development ministry said in a statement.
The companies interested in taking part in infrastructure projects in Bulgaria are China Communications Construction Co, China Road and Bridge Corporation, CITIC Construction, Mizrahi Real Estate Group Inc. together with China Machinery Engineering Corporation, as well as Quantum Global Solutions together with PowerChina International Group Limited, the ministry said.
The agreements were signed after meetings between representatives of the regional development ministry and potential Chinese investors on the sidelines of the China-CEE 16+1 summit taking place in Sofia.
The '16+1' is an initiative of the Chinese government for closer economic cooperation with 11 EU member states and five countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) - Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The '16+1' initiative intersects with the Chinese government's One Belt, One Road development strategy under which China plans to invest hundreds of billions of euro in other countries in Asia and in Europe in a bid to strengthen its role in global affairs.
However, the '16+1' initiative, which envisages large investments in infrastructure and technologies in these 11 countries which China views as a bridge to the EU, has raised concerns in the EU institutions that it runs counter to the common law, as it could allow Chinese companies to circumvent the bloc's import duties and anti-dumping tariffs.