CAEXPO: Innovative attempts to serve ‘Belt and Road’

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‍The 14th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO), which had the theme of “Jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, promoting regional economic integration through tourism” closed on Friday in the southern Chinese city of Nanning.

CGTN Photo

Two new pavilions

“A focus of this year's event is the Belt and Road Initiative, with a display area dedicated to products from countries along the Belt and Road, such as Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan,” said Wang Lei, secretary-general of the expo.

Wang Lei, secretary-general of the 14th China-ASEAN Expo /Photo from caexpo.org

Products including foodstuffs, healthcare products, handicrafts, electronics, electrical appliances and consumer goods are promoted in the Commodity Trade Along the Belt and Road pavilion.

This year’s CAEXPO also puts new attention on the export of high-end equipment, containing advanced technology with lots of added value. For this, the pavilion of intelligence manufacturing equipment was added.

In this particular pavilion, advanced manufacturing, smart cities and innovation in science and technology of ASEAN countries, namely in the fields of healthcare science and technology, high-tech industrial parks, overseas talents’ innovation and startup business were displayed for export.

CGTN Photo

Country of Honor

Brunei was the Country of Honor at this year’s CAEXPO. With tourism as the theme of the expo, travel agents from the country came to boost their sector by targeting the Chinese middle class.

This is the second time Brunei has been invited as a CAEXPO Country of Honor since it was first invited in 2007, when the concept was introduced at the 4th CAEXPO. Generally, the ruling follows the English alphabetical order of the 10 ASEAN countries’ names.

Photo from caexpo.org

“Country of Honor system greatly embodies the ‘spirit of jointly holding the CAEXPO’ between China and ASEAN, and receives wide praise from ASEAN countries,” Wang said.

A special partner

“Kazakhstan took part in the expo with a delegation of more than 200 people, and was the first country along the Silk Road Economic Belt that was invited as a Special Partner,” Wang said.

The Special Partner system was launched at the 11th CAEXPO. Every year, a member country of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or a major country along the Belt and Road route, will be invited to promote cooperation with China, ASEAN and the economies outside the China-ASEAN region.

“We indeed made bold and innovative attempts for the expo. For example, we held special events with Britain, located at the west end of Silk Road Economic Belt…We promoted the strategic planning of a China-Singapore ‘Southbound Passage,’” Wang added.

CGTN Photo

He noted that CAEXPO has become an asset for both sides to promote facilitated trade and investment and a major engine of boosting all forms of collaboration, which can help more Chinese companies go out and market in ASEAN.

This year’s event includes 35 high-level forums, covering finance, technology, e-commerce, environment, agriculture, education, culture, tourism, industrial capacity cooperation, poverty relief and communication with mayors and other fields.

Southbound passage

As the important pathway to ASEAN, Guangxi not only strengthened connectivity with the Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou Province in southwest China, but also developed framework agreement with Singapore, aiming to co-build the “Chongqing-Guangxi-Singapore Southbound Passage,” which will contribute to the Belt and Road construction in western China.

Xinhua Photo

This international land and sea trade channel will facilitate community collaboration and co-prosperity among China and ASEAN countries by linking Central, Western and Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway, a more than 10,000km rail route stretching from Chongqing in southwestern China to Duisburg, Germany has brought Europe, South China’s manufacturing hub and Southwest China’s industrial belt together.

2048km