EU opens information office in central China

An information office for the European Union (EU) opened in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province on Monday.

The office, the first and the only branch of the European Information Center (EIC) on the Chinese mainland, will provide a platform for information exchanges between Chinese and EU businesses, said its director Xun Li.

The EU is the province's biggest trading partner, with 850 million US dollars in trade last year, according to the Hunan Office of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).

"The office will include a library open to the public, where Chinese firms can get information on EU business while EU firms can learn more about China," said Xun.

EIC director in Sweden Christina Soderstrom said, "We'll see more EU firms come to Hunan, come to central China for business, due to the opening of EIC's Changsha office."

Christophe Doucerain, Economic and Commercial Counselor of EU Delegation in China, said the office will serve as a "new starting point" for China-EU business cooperation and will exert a far-reaching influence.

The EIC, founded in 1987 and under the direct leadership of the EU, is a large information network that offers service for medium-and-small businesses. It has more than 300 offices in 46 countries.

The CCPIT and the EIC have prepared for three years for opening the Changsha office, which was approved by the EU on March 11 this year.

Earlier, the EIC set up a branch office in Macao.

According to Wang Yuli, director of the CCPIT's Hunan Office, the EIC will possibly open another branch China office in Shanghai in two years.