Nanning, September 17 (AseanAll) — The 20th China-Asean Expo (CAEXPO) and China-Asean Business and Investment Summit opened on September 17 in Nanning, Guangxi, China.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim , Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Phumtham Wechayachai and other ASEAN leaders and senior officials attended the opening ceremony, as well as ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn.
The Expo starts on September 16th and lasts until September 19th, with the theme of "Building a home with harmony and Coexistence, a Shared Future - Promoting high-quality Development of the Belt and Road and Building an economic Growth Center", during which activities such as the opening ceremony, the Expo and the 20th anniversary of the Summit will be held.
Focusing on China-Asean Free Trade Area 3.0, RCEP, the Belt and Road and other multilateral and bilateral cooperation mechanisms, the Expo will continue to hold institutional activities such as the Third RCEP Summit Forum, and release the Blue Book of "China-Asean Free Trade Area 3.0 Business Opportunities Outlook" to help regional enterprises better grasp the new economic and trade rules and better share the new dividends of high-quality RCEP implementation.
The total exhibition area of the 20th CAEXPO is 102,000 square meters, with foreign exhibitions accounting for over 30% of the total. The total number of participating enterprises is 1953, an increase of 18.2% compared to the previous session, including the world's top 500, China's top 500 and well-known enterprises 350.
The quality of foreign exhibitions has been further improved, with nearly 750 enterprises from 45 countries participating in the exhibition, of which the exhibition scale of the ASEAN exhibition area has returned to the pre-epidemic level, with about 640 exhibitors. In the ASEAN Merchandise Exhibition area, seven ASEAN countries, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, have resumed their pavilions. Chinese exhibitors will highlight new products and technologies such as digital economy and green economy.
During the Expo, 19 high-level forums will be held on e-commerce, environmental protection, blue economy and other relevant hot areas, deepening cooperation between China and ASEAN countries in sustainable and low-carbon development, and jointly promoting innovation and consolidation of the construction mechanism of the "Five Homes".
CAEXPO was proposed by Wen Jiabao, then the Premier of China, at the China-Asean 10+1 Meeting in 2003. It is a national and international economic and trade event co-hosted by the competent economic and trade departments of China and 10 ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretariat, and hosted by the People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At the same time, the China-Asean Business and Investment Summit also holds. Over the past 20 years, the Expo and the Summit have become important platforms for exchanges and cooperation between China and ASEAN.
