"It is rather an exceptional move that President Xi opted to access majority of the Czechs through the personal article in media," said Milan Tomanek, group head of public relations of Home Credit International, an international consumer finance provider based in the Czech Republic with China as one of its biggest markets.
"I think it is just evidence that the Czech-China ties come to a strategic level which promotes strategic partnership," said Tomanek, whose company has been in China for more than eight years with over 32,000 employees.
For many years in a row, China has been the Czech Republic's largest trading partner outside the European Union and the Czech Republic China's second-largest trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe.
In 2015, bilateral trade was 11 billion U.S. dollars. Bilateral cooperation in nuclear power, finance, aviation, science and technology and agriculture made progress and mutual investment also flourished.
"The visit by President Xi to our homeland sets up an important milestone which makes us proud of being the ones paving the way for mutually beneficial investments," said Tomanek.
He said he believes bilateral ties will further develop within the important win-win framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, which was proposed by Xi in 2013 with an aim to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
At the end of 2015, the Chinese and Czech governments signed an MoU on jointly promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, which created wider prospects for bilateral exchanges and cooperation in all fields.