“China and Serbia signed an agreement allowing mutual recognition and exchanges of the two country's driving licenses. Under the new deal, people with driving licenses from one side can drive or apply for new licenses without taking tests in the other country.” Reading the news alert on his phone, Bu Xiaoyong, secretary general of Serbia-China Smart Culture and Tourism Association, automatically opened the Sina Weibo app, the Chinese microblogging service platform, on his phone.

“It is in the third place on Weibo’s trendy topics list!” Bu said. As a Chinese expatriate living in Serbia, he has personally witnessed the changes brought about by the Belt and Road Imitative. In the past few years, Bu has been used to “Serbia on Weibo’s trendy topics list every single month”.

This is the first time that the Chinese government has signed such an agreement with a country from Central and Eastern Europe. Once into effect, it will make it easier for citizens of both sides to work and live in another country, enhance economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, and provide strong support to the construction of the Belt and Road.

To Bu Xiaoyong, it was “just a small perk between two countries counting each other among their closest friends”. In fact, growing ties between them have already changed his life plans.

“I came to Serbia in 2003. After that, my life has been divided into two stages,” Bu recalled, “Doing business before 2016, and then working as a tour guide after 2017, when Serbia exempted visa to Chinese citizens.” Before 2017, there was no such thing as the China market in Serbian tourism, said Bu. At the time, the vast majority of tourists came from Western Europe, who came to this European “back garden” every summer to enjoy sunshine, food, music and its unique history and culture. Chinese tourists, on the contrary, flocked to Western Europe and Northern Europe.

Thanks to the visa-free policy, China suddenly became a new force in Serbia’s tourism market. By 2019, China became the number one source of tourists to Serbia.

“For this reason, from authorities to the general public, Serbia attaches great importance to the Chinese market, which has great potential in the future,” Bu said. “Next, direct flights are likely to be opened, and more comprehensive cooperation is expected!” In the video interview, Bu Xiaoyong pointed to a beautiful white building behind him: the Chinese Cultural Center in Belgrade, which used to house the Chinese Embassy in former Yugoslavia.

“In the past, as no direct flights were available, our Ningbo clients usually went to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro for 13 days,” said Liu Ling, a Ningbo-based travel agent in regular contact with Bu Xiaoyong, “Now, there is a growing demand to travel to Serbia because of its visa-free policy, despite disruptions by the COVID-19, and we are planning to offer Serbia-only services to tourists, so that they can fully enjoy the Balkan beauty.”

In 2020, bilateral trade between Ningbo and Serbia reached 532 million yuan, up 29.3 percent year-on-year. In January and February 2021, Ningbo’s import and export to Serbia climbed to 156 million yuan, a 185% year-on-year increase, of which import increased by 61.7%.