The 2004 China Kunming Export Commodities Fair will be held in
Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, from
June 6 to 10.
This year, more improvements will be made to the ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) exhibition hall and, for
the first time, a South Asia exhibition hall will be opened. These
moves reflect the themes of the Kunming fair: exploiting geographic
proximity and shared borders; promoting communications between the
three major markets of China, Southeast Asia and South Asia; taking
advantage of Southeast and South Asia as economic complements and
seeking mutual development for them.
The Kunming Fair has always been closely connected with
Southeast Asian nations, with which southwest China shares some
4,060 kilometers of border. Yunnan Province lies adjacent to
Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar and is an important gateway connecting
Southeast and South Asia. Economic and cultural exchanges between
southwest China and these two regions have historically been
conducted through Yunnan.
In light of Yunnan's geographic advantages, since it was
formally approved by the state in 1993 this state-level and
regional export commodities fair has been jointly sponsored by the
governments of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, Guangxi
Zhuang and Tibet autonomous regions, and Chongqing Municipality and
Chengdu City.
According to Yu Dingcheng, deputy director of the Yunnan Bureau
of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, more than 4,000 guests
from approximately 60 countries attend the fair each year, and over
1,000 domestic enterprises from 20 provinces, autonomous regions
and municipalities participate. Ranging from import and export to
foreign investment, and from international economic and
technological cooperation to border trade, the previous 11 fairs
have recorded total trade deals reaching US$20 billion. Some 60
percent of that amount reflects trade between China and Southeast
Asian and South Asian nations.
Yu says that in order to make the Kunming Fair the primary trade
platform between China and ASEAN nations, this year's focus will be
on making further improvements to the ASEAN exhibition hall, border
trade exhibition hall and investment exhibition hall. Currently,
nine of the ten ASEAN nations have registered to participate in the
fair. There are 235 registered exhibition booths, with 30 from
Thailand, 30 from Myanmar, 7 from Malaysia, 12 from the Philippines
and 6 from Brunei. Representatives are still encouraging
enterprises in Laos to participate.
The scale of ASEAN enterprises, the quality of products and the
organization of the exhibition have all improved this year, says
Yu. The ASEAN hall will remain the highlight of the fair.
The opening of the South Asian Hall this year means that the
Kunming Fair will attract enterprises, business people and products
from South Asian nations, enhancing the influence and attraction of
the fair and promoting the development and cooperation of the three
big markets. Enterprises from Bangladesh have already registered to
participate and some Indian enterprises have indicated their intent
to do so.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Wu Nanlan and Wang Qian, May 26,
2004)