China-ASEAN Expo shines light on shared future

With closer economic and trade ties, China and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to embrace a brighter shared future, officials said during the closing press conference of the 20th China-ASEAN Expo, or CAEXPO, held on Tuesday.

The expo, which was held between Saturday and Tuesday in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has yielded fruitful results and far-reaching effects.

Exhibition activities have resumed to the level before the three-year pandemic. With a total exhibition area of 102,000 square meters, the expo has attracted 1,953 enterprises from 46 countries, among which 350 were from the Fortune 500 companies. The number of foreign enterprises reached 738, or 37.8 percent of the total, data from the organizing committee showed.

By noon of Tuesday, the expo had witnessed 150,000 visits. Over 70 trade promotional activities had been held, and about 30 enterprises had performed 42 livestreaming sales, said the organizing committee.

The number of signed contracts hit a new record, with contracted projects on newly emerged industries totaling 470, with an investment amount of 487.3 billion yuan ($66.8 billion).

Wei Zhaohui, secretary-general of China-ASEAN Secretariat said: "Thanks to joint efforts from all parties, various activities, which were grand, enthusiastic, exciting and pragmatic, were accomplished, contributing to the complete success of the 20th CAEXPO."

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the CAEXPO. China-ASEAN cooperation has ushered from the past "golden decade", to a "diamond decade", and then flowing into a new decade that is "crowned with diamond inlay".

Marching towards the new decade, the CAEXPO will ramp up efforts in promoting the establishment of a new mechanism for regular high-level meetings between China and ASEAN, creating pilot projects of China-ASEAN institutional opening-up, establishing major channels for building China-ASEAN community of common destiny, building the best platform of bringing business opportunities to dual-circulation markets, and working out cultural symbols of China and ASEAN working together for a harmonious home, Wei said.