Recently, the 1st China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held in Ningbo. Dr. Xue Jingqi, Ren Xiuxia, and Xue Yuqian from the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers (IVF) participated in the competition by giving a speech named as Development and Efficient Utilization of Peony as “Homology of Food and Medicine". This research was supported by the National Key R&D Plan of China-Serbia International Cooperation Project and China Agriculture Research System. This speech provided a detailed introduction to the team's cooperation achievements with Serbia in the research and development and promotion of peony health products from various aspects such as variety selection, product process research and development, and efficacy evaluation. Ultimately, it stood out from 145 projects from 14 countries and won the second prize in the competition with the team's top three results.

Serbia is the first CEE country to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with China, and also a positive responder and strong supporter of the "the Belt and Road" initiative. Against the backdrop of the closely friendship, the IVF has cooperated with Serbia to carry out a series of work. Firstly, despite the generally low support rate for agricultural projects in Serbia, it has successfully obtained high scores and been approved for international cooperation projects; The second is to overcome numerous difficulties. The two sides have had multiple on-site meetings and participated in on-site research. The scientific and technological exchanges between our embassy in Serbia and the Serbian side have become more frequent, and the mutual trust and friendship between the two sides have become deeper. The areas of cooperation have also been greatly expanded, forming a positive interaction with the normal development of the project. Thirdly, with the assistance of our embassy in Serbia and friends from Serbia, we successfully introduced more than 10 important European peony resources from the Serbian side, greatly accelerating the process of peony breeding in China. Fourthly, a total of 25 students from 5 scientific research units in Serbia were invited to participate in the International Vegetable and Flower Breeding Training Course organized by IVF, and a special lecture on Chinese peony was conducted in the course. The course systematically introduced the historical prosperity and cultural development of Chinese peony, and explained the origin of "Chinese peony going out" and the formation of the world pattern. They shared the experience of cooperation opportunities between China and countries along the "the Belt and Road", and the participants responded warmly. The organization department of the Serbian side also invited the staff of our embassy to issue graduation certificates for its students on behalf of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The fifth is to actively promote diversified cooperation, jointly holding several online academic salons and seminars with Serbia, jointly publishing academic papers, and jointly building the "Chin-Serbia Functional Plant Joint (R&D) Center", greatly expanding the breadth and depth of scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries.

It is understood that this competition is hosted by Department of International Cooperation of Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Department of Foreign Expert Services of Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Department and Ningbo Municipal People's Government, and co-organized by Talent Office, CPC Ningbo Municipal Committee, Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau and China-CEE countries Innovation Cooperation Research Center. It is also hosted by the Zagreb Innovation Center in Croatia Co-organized by the School of Economics and Political Sciences of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, the University of St. Kiril Mettodi in Skopje, Northern Macedonia, and the Slovenian Innovation Center.

With the theme of "Innovative Youth Share the Future", the competition aims to build a platform for exchange and cooperation between young scientific and technological talents from China and CEE countries, bring together young scientific and technological talents, innovators and entrepreneurs, promote exchange and cooperation between young scientific and technological talents from China and CEE countries, open up new prospects for win-win cooperation between China and CEE countries, and constantly create new drivers for future-oriented development.