Prague, June 22 (CTK) - New Czech Ambassador Huo Yuzhen expects tourism between China and the Czech Republic to increase after the introduction of a direct Prague-Beijing flight, she told CTK today.
"Chinese are interested in visiting the Czech Republic," Huo Yuzhen said.
Chinese tourists can travel to the Czech Republic and other EU countries since 2004 when an agreement between the EU and China took effect.
In 2005, 17,806 Chinese tourists visited the Czech Republic, which is 0.3 percent of all tourists arriving in the country.
Huo Yuzhen assumes that the number of Chinese tourists will be increasing. The CzechTourism agency strives for this, too, organising presentations of the Czech Republic in Chinese cities.
Huo Yuzhen handed her credentials to President Vaclav Klaus on Wednesday. She said that apart from tourism, trade and agriculture are perspective areas of mutual cooperation. She attended a Czech-Chinese economic forum in Prague today.
Huo Yuzhen is an expert in Bohemian studies. She worked at the Chinese Embassy in Prague in the past.
Outgoing Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek visited China last June, while China´s PM Wen Jiabao arrived in the Czech Republic in December, six months later. Paroubek put an emphasis on the economic aspect of the mutual relations.
Klaus visited China in 2004 as the first Czech president to pay an official visit to Beijing since the late 1989 fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. Klaus´s predecessor, former Czech president Vaclav Havel (1993-2003), never visited China in protest against the violation of human rights.
The daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote earlier that the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao in Prague is being considered. Huo Yuzhen said she does not yet know when he would come. She said it is necessary to create conditions for the visit and find a date suitable for both sides.