On July 17, the State Council Information Office (SCIO) of the People’s Republic of China held the 15th Anniversary of the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership & Press Conference for China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and China-ASEAN Business & Investment Summit.

Gao Yan, Vice Minister of Commerce of China and Members of the Standing Committee and Secretary-General of the Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region introduced the situation of China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation.

The 15th CAEXPO will be held in September in Nanning. This year also marks the 15th anniversary of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership, which is more significant. With the theme of innovation and upgrading, this CAEXPO highlights informatization and intelligence integrating deeply with manufacturing to promote industry improvement and upgrading through technology innovation. What’s more, cooperation in international capacity and equipment manufacturing will be enhanced and the technology content and added value of exports will be stressed. The 15th CAEXPO will also develop trade in service, support Chinese enterprises to go out for cooperation in capacity and investment and build industry chain and value chain.

As bilateral cooperation constantly deepened, China has been ASEAN’s largest trade partner for nine consecutive years and ASEAN has been China’s third-largest trade partner, the forth-largest export market and the second-largest importing source.

Since CAFTA was started in 2010, bilateral tariff barriers were significantly reduced, thus the cost of export and import sharply fell, leading to ASEAN becoming China’s important export market. Also, low-cost land and labor force are one of the advantages in bilateral economic exchange. Thus, China-ASEAN trade and economy exchange become an important part of Belt & Road Initiative.

Especially Guangxi, a trading channel connecting China and ASEAN, gradually becomes the bridgehead and distributing center for bilateral trading exchange. President Xi used to make a speech that Nanning will be promoted to become a China-ASEAN commodity exchange center. The high-level summits held in 15th CAEXPO are expected to bring new opportunities for Nanning.

Beibu Gulf Port: the biggest port in Guangxi and the biggest logistic platform connecting Guangxi to ASEAN Free Trade Area and serving for West China.

Wuzhou Communications: the only listed transportation company in Guangxi. Nanning-Baise Highway, governed by Wuzhou Communications connects southwest regions with Guangxi’s ports and Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

Nanning Baihuo: one of the biggest commerce retailers in Guangxi, enjoying many regional advantages.