17th China-ASEAN Expo held in China

The 17th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit have successfully held in Nanning, the capital city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Themed "Building the Belt and Road, promoting digital economy cooperation," the expo aimed to deepen cooperation in trade, digital economy, science and technology, health, and other fields.

Photo: TBS

Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the opening ceremony of the Expo.

The China-ASEAN Expo is an international economic and trade event held from November 26th to November 30th at the Nanning International Conference and Exhibition Center in the city of Nanning. China-ASEAN Expo is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China, the competent economic and trade departments of the 10 ASEAN governments, and the ASEAN Secretariat, undertaken by the people's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, visited Nanning to attend this grand meeting, presided over the opening meeting, and announced the opening. ASEAN Secretary-General Lin Yuhui also delivered a video speech. The ASEAN countries and Pakistani ambassadors to China attended the event.

Photo: Collected.

This grand event is a major international exhibition that combines online and offline. Up to now, it has successfully held 16 sessions. It is a national key exhibition directly hosted at the national level, with special international influence and once a year one belt, one road, has played an important role in the friendly cooperation between countries and ASEAN.　 

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a video speech at the opening conference, comprehensively reviewing the fruitful achievements of China-ASEAN cooperation in recent years, and highly appraised that China-ASEAN relations have become the most successful and dynamic model of Asia-Pacific regional cooperation, and have become the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

It also points out that under the new situation, China regards ASEAN as the priority direction of neighboring diplomacy and high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" key area, supports the construction of the ASEAN community supports the central position of ASEAN in East Asia cooperation, and supports ASEAN in building an open Play a greater role in an inclusive regional structure.

President Xi Jinping put forward four proposals for building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future: enhancing strategic mutual trust and in-depth docking of development plans; enhancing economic and trade cooperation and accelerating the overall recovery of the regional economy; enhancing technological innovation and deepening digital economic cooperation; enhancing cooperation in the fight against the epidemic, Strengthen public health capacity building.

Prime Minister Thong Lun of Laos, President Joko of Indonesia, President Win Myint of Myanmar, President Duterte of the Philippines, Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia, Prime Minister Prayut of Thailand, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam, President Alvi of Pakistan, and other leaders delivered video speeches at the opening ceremony.

Spoke highly of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership, and affirmed the important role played by the China-ASEAN Expo and the summit in promoting cooperation between the two sides, demonstrating firm confidence in strengthening free trade cooperation, jointly safeguarding the multilateral trading system, fighting the epidemic together and accelerating the recovery of regional economies.

Sarwar Hossain, a Bangladeshi who participated in the exhibition as the Head of International Sales at the Beijing Chinahan Production Management and Trading Company, said, "I am delighted to be participating in the 17th China-ASEAN Expo. This year's China ASEAN Expo is particularly significant because it is the first meeting between ASEAN countries and Chinese businessmen since the signing of the RCEP agreement. Apart from ASEAN countries, traders from Pakistan, Iran, Brazil, and many other countries also participated in the fair. By attending this fair, I have learned about the trade and many products of all these countries.

He added, "I think if the government of Bangladesh and businessmen could participate in this fair, our economy would benefit a lot." And everyone could know about the product content of our country. He hoped that in the near future, Bangladesh would be included in the RCEP facility and would be able to enjoy duty-free access in the markets of all ASEAN and RCEP member countries, including China.

Amy Zhong, General Manager of Yiwu Buyu Exhibition Service Company Limited (Amy Fair), said, "Our Company is cooperating with foreign buyers to participate in the 18th China ASEAN Expo for four days. This exhibition is held every year. Hopefully next year there will be a gathering of more foreign buyers. Amy Fair hosts more than forty exhibitions each year.

She called upon Bangladeshi businessmen to participate in business exhibitions in China. Amy Fair assures civic collaboration to participate in the exhibition.

Md Farrukh Uddin Piash, the proprietor of Hangzhou Hive International Company, who participated in the fair, said, "I attended the four days 18th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning. Participating in this great expo has enabled us to meet government officials, the business community, and professional buyers around the world, including exploring the Chinese market. The exhibition halls had the technology, automobile equipment, medical equipment, food, and agricultural products.

With an exhibition area of 104,000 square meters, this year's expo set up 5,400 booths for 1,668 enterprises, including Fortune 500 and industry-leading companies. In addition, 1,956 enterprises from home and abroad participated virtually in the event. More than 150 trade and investment promotion activities were held both online and offline during the expo.

A total of 86 investment projects worth 263.87 billion yuan (around 40.1 billion U.S. dollars) were signed at the four-day event, an annual increase of 43.6 percent, according to data released by the expo's secretariat at the closing ceremony. The investment projects in the fields of health, big data, logistics, new manufacturing, new materials, new energy, and finance, accounted for 85.3 percent of the total.

A total of 10 high-level forums were held under the framework of this year's China-ASEAN Expo, and 8 were held during the conference, covering areas such as free trade zone, health, information port, finance, international production capacity, technology transfer, statistics, and electricity. The holding of the series of forums has improved the cooperation mechanism in various fields.

A number of important initiatives have been released, such as the "3rd China-ASEAN Health Cooperation Initiative", "10+3 Young Scientists Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Initiative", "China-Indonesia Health Cooperation Implementation Plan", etc.

The closing press conference announced that, after communicating with the co-organizers of the China-ASEAN Expo, the 18th China-ASEAN Expo is initially scheduled to be held from September 10 to 13, 2021. Laos will continue to serve as the subject country of the 18th CAEXPO. Pakistan will continue to be the special partner of the 18th China-ASEAN Expo. The 18th China-ASEAN Expo will continue to hold the 18th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit concurrently.

Bangladesh, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, America, Guatemala, Korea, Nepal, Sudan, India, Somalia, Morocco, Cameroon, Pakistan, Palestine, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, Iran, Algeria, Mozambique, Chad, and Business representatives from many more coun