Jointly sponsored by China and ASEAN countries, the China-ASEAN Expo is annually held in Oct. in Nanning city in Guangxi province of China. It has been undertaken thrice with great success with 18 national leaders and over 500 guests of ministry-level leaders from different nations personally attending this Expo. During the past Expos, there were about 82 thousand traveling merchants and 5505 enterprises participating in the exhibition. The amount of business stemmed from the expo comes up to 3.5 billion and the total amount of the concluded contracts of transnational investment program is over 16 billion USD. This Expo has developed into the most authoritative and influential distinguished meeting in the field of commerce and trade within China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).

The Special Feature in respect of Commodity Trading will focus on advantage merchandises from China and ten ASEAN countries，which gets those purchasing agents informed and helps them to finish purchasing plan from 11 countries by engaging in the Expo in one country. The exhibition zone for this Special Feature especially set up an area to display the merchandises from ASEAN countries. What will be mainly exhibited are Machinery Equipment, Electronic Apparatus, Construction Material, Daily Chemicals, Jewels and Jade ware, Arts and Crafts, Palm Oil and Products, and Minerals, etc.

The Special Feature of Cooperation Investment will focus on 2000 programs in respect of Developing Zone with investment potential, Infrastructure and Industry. During the Expos of past three years, the total contracting volume of international investment came up to 16.11 billion USD. This Expo has become a window from which those investors within CAFTA were attracted to take up international investment. In the 4th China-ASEAN Expo, the cooperation and investment between China and ASEAN countries will be further deepened in such hot domains of inviting merchants for programs, project contracting, cooperation in the field of labor services, resource exploitation, market analysis, financial services, project proofing and trading of external manufacture and so on.

The Special Feature about the Adaptation of Rural Technique was designed to enhance the level on transfer of scientific and technological achievements, so as to strengthen the agricultural products’ competitiveness within CAFTA. During the previous China-ASEAN Expos, there had been displayed 1357 programs among which there were 126 contracting projects and the amount of business came up to 256 million USD. During the 4th China-ASEAN Expo, what will be exhibited in this Special Feature included several projects which are Achievements of Planting and Cultivation, Preservation and Manufacture of Farm and By-products, Value-added Technique Achievements, Agricultural Biotechnology Achievements and Achievements of Modern Agricultural Equipment Technology. It is specified that over 400 projects adapted to rural areas and selected by the Ministry of Science and Technology of P.R.C are characterized by “Maturity”, “Advance” and “Applicability” , adapted for the agricultural development in ASEAN countries and will remarkably play their role in improving the agricultural efficiency and increasing peasants’ income.

In the Special Feature of “Cities of Charm”, all the cities are composed of 11 representative cities from 11 countries (China and 10 ASEAN countries) respectively. The Special Feature will systematically reveal the commercial opportunities in areas of tourism, logistics, culture, education, science and technology and social development. In the China-ASEAN Expo of this year, the most important cities with seaport from 11 countries will be popularized and the Charming Seaport will be highlighted to exhibit the charm of these cities. The exhibition in this Special Feature will comprehensively introduce commercial opportunities of cooperation in aspects of Seaport Construction, Dock Operation, Navigation Services, Physical Distribution, Seaport Informationization and Ship Building, etc.

The forum on China-ASEAN Seaport Development and Cooperation will be specially organized in the Expo of this year.  As a result that China and ASEAN countries have coastal and inland harbor, the forum with “cooperation on basis of mutual benefit and Coordinated Development” as its theme will promote the Seaport Cooperation within CAFTA. On the occasion, the Ministers of Ministry of Transportation in China and ASEAN countries, the Administrators of Cities of Charm and Industrial Leaders of Seaport Market will make contact with internationally famous logistics experts to discuss the development policies, provide the leading information of seaport and create the opportunities of seaport development and cooperation.

The job of inviting exhibitors and traveling merchants for the 4th China-ASEAN Expo has started in an all-round way. The deadline to attend the Expo in this year is 31st July 2007, and the relevant details can be obtained by visiting the official website of China-ASENA Expo Secretariat (www.caexpo.org), or inquiring through the consulting hotline of China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat: +86-771-961236

source:China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat