The Czech Republic is becoming object of growing interest of both Chinese officials and Chinese businessmen. This interest is one of the results of official visit of Czech foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek to China. For Czech minister it was the first visit after 15 year gap. During his visit there both sides not only commemorated 65th anniversary of establishing official diplomatic relations but also discussed important economic matters. During his visit minister met among others with Shao Qiwei, minister and president of National Administration of Tourism, or Executive Deputy Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan. Minister Zaorálek said that the Czech Republic had a lot to offer in the areas of healthcare, environment protection, aviation and modern technologies and also expressed Czech interest in attracting tourists from China to visit the Czech Republic for example by making visa policy as fast and transparent as possible. Following this official visit the delegations of two prominent Chinese officials visited Czech Republic and met with the Czech representatives. First was the delegation of above mentioned minister Chao Qiwei accompanied with Chinese leading tourist agencies’ representatives. A meeting was held during previous weekend where both Chinese representatives and Czech representatives discusses opportunities for development of Chinese tourism in the Czech Republic. Czech side was represented by Viliam Sivek, president of the Association of Czech Travel Bureaux. Minister Qiwei pointed out that CzechTourism agency could do more to attract Chinese tourists especially by promoting Czech Republic and Czech tourism on internet as Chinese usually look there first when searching for interesting holiday destination. Chinese tourists are well known for spending large amounts of money during their visits abroad.

Minister Chao Qiwei also met with his counterpart Věra Jourová, Minister of Regional Development. Second delegation was led by Li Qiang, Governor of Zhejiang Province, who attended economic forum that took place in Plzeň, capital of the region that has partnership with Zhejiang Province. Li Qiang met there with Minister of Commerce Jan Mládek. Plzeňský kraj and Zhejiang Province signed together Agreement of Extended Cooperation. During his stay in the Czech Republic Li Qiang also visited Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka.

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