President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić met earlier today with the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China, Chen Bo, to discuss the upcoming visit of the Chinese Minister of Defence, the continuation of the vaccination process and the new factory that will produce the vaccine of the Chinese Sinopharm company, as well as the dynamics of works on the infrastructure projects engaging Chinese companies.

President Vučić reiterated his gratitude to friendly China and President Xi Jinping for their tremendous solidarity and assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to which the citizens of Serbia were among the first in the world to receive quality protection from this dangerous disease.

He also once again confirmed the exceptional trust of the citizens of our country in the Chinese vaccine, and thus in the Chinese state and its experts. In that context, during the talks, the interlocutors paid special attention to the project of building a new factory to produce vaccines of the Chinese company "Sinopharm" in Serbia, which would ensure long-term and strategic supply of vaccines and health protection of the population of Serbia and the region.

President Vučić and Ambassador Chen agreed that this factory will be built following the highest world standards in the field of technology for the vaccines' production, which will place Serbia among those countries that can be competitive in this area in a greatly demanding global market. President Vučić and the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China also discussed the progress of works on infrastructure projects in Serbia that engage Chinese companies.

It was stated that the projects follow the planned dynamics and that by the end of the year, two key infrastructure projects will be completed - the highway Preljina-Požega and the fast railway Belgrade-Novi Sad for speeds of up to 200 km per hour. The interlocutors also discussed the upcoming visit of the Minister of Defence of the People's Republic of China, which will be dedicated to talks on further improvement of bilateral relations in this area.

Belgrade, 16th March 2021