The COSCO Pisces container ship approaches Piraeus port, a flagship project of China-Greece cooperation, on Feb. 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Wu Lu)

BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) has become closer in multiple areas, including trade and investment, the promotion of China-Europe freight trains and project agreements.

The following are some highlights of economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

The first "China Post" CR Express block train is seen unloading after arrival in Vilnius, Lithuania, April 14, 2020. (Lithuania Post/Handout via Xinhua)

-- China's total trade volume with 17 CEECs reached 103.45 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, crossing the 100-billion-dollar mark for the first time, data from the Ministry of Commerce shows. (see chart)

This marked a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent, higher than the growth rate of China's foreign trade and its trade with Europe as a whole.

Logging an average annual growth rate of 8 percent from 2012, the growth of China's trade with CEECs is three times the growth of its foreign trade and two times the growth of its trade with Europe as a whole.

Customers visit the first official store of Chinese technology company Xiaomi at a shopping center in Bucharest, capital of Romania, April 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Gabriel Petrescu)

A winged vehicle by Slovak automaker Aeromobil is on display at the first China International Import Expo in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

-- China's foreign direct investment in the economic sectors of 17 CEECs, including energy, infrastructure, logistics and automobile parts, totaled 3.14 billion dollars by the end of 2020.

The 17 countries invested 1.72 billion dollars in China during the period.

Photo taken on June 27, 2018 shows "Dongfanghong" tractors waiting to be exported to Serbia at a factory of YTO Group Corporation in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province. (Xinhua/Li An)

Vehicles move on the Miladinovci-Shtip highway section which connects North Macedonia's capital Skopje with the eastern part of the country, July 6, 2019. The 47-km highway section was constructed by a Chinese company. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

-- The number of China-Europe freight trains stood at 12,400 in 2020, with key passages and destinations including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

A Chinese Railway Express freight train leaves for Prague, the Czech Republic from Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 9, 2017 . (Photo by Gong Xianming/Xinhua)

-- Last year, the total contract value of China's newly signed overseas projects with the 17 countries spiked 34.6 percent to 5.41 billion dollars.

A Chinese travel agent staff member attends the Baltic Sea Tourism Forum in Riga, Latvia, Oct. 22, 2019. (Photo by Edijs Palens/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Sept. 16, 2020 shows a construction site of the Senj Wind Farm project in Senj, Croatia. The project, which features 39 wind turbines (four MW each) and supporting facilities, is expected to be completed under contract with a Chinese construction company in April 2021. (Xinhua/Gao Lei)

Aerial photo taken on Feb. 1, 2020 shows the construction site of the Peljesac Bridge, a China-Croatia cooperation project, near Komarna, Croatia. (Xinhua/Gao Lei)■