The Sino-CEEF Holding Company officially started, according to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's biggest lender.

The Sino-CEEF Holding Company is a new platform for economic cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) nations and is invested in solely by ICBC Asia, a subsidiary of ICBC.

The new company will initiate a Sino-CEE fund, which will focus on investment cooperation in infrastructure, high-tech manufacturing and mass consumption industries, said Jiang Jianqing, head of the Sino-CEEF Holding Company.

Several CEE countries, companies and financial organizations have shown interest in investing in the fund, Jiang said, adding that the size of the fund is expected to reach 10 billion euros (around $11 billion).

Economic and trade ties between China and the CEE region have deepened in recent years. The fund will provide financial services for the two sides, seeking to strengthen industrial capacity cooperation, Jiang said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2016)