Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L), Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov (C) and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic jointly inaugurate the Global Partnership Center of Central and Eastern European Countries and China in Dubrovnik, Croatia, April 12, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

DUBROVNIK, Croatia, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic launched on Friday a partnership center to support cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The Global Partnership Center of CEECs and China is an important outcome made at last year's China-CEEC leaders' meeting in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. It is also an initiative of innovation within the China-CEEC cooperation framework.

The center is a non-governmental and non-profit think tank and advisory body, which is designed to provide policy and legal consultation, as well as intellectual support to bolster trade and investment cooperation between enterprises of the two sides, and further deepen the China-CEEC cooperation.

At the seventh China-CEEC leaders' meeting in July last year, China and Bulgaria jointly put forward the initiative to set up the center in an effort to offer consultation and advice to government bodies and businesses involved in China-CEEC cooperation, and to promote the China-CEEC mechanism's principles of openness, equality, fairness and transparency.