Xinhua Agency, Beijing, September 11 Title: The 21st China-ASEAN Expo will open a new stage of "diamond-setting crown"

Xinhua Agency reporters Gu Yiping and Xie Xiyao

The 21st China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be held in Nanning, Guangxi from September 24 to 28. The State Council Information Office held a press conference on September 11 to introduce the relevant situation.

On September 11, the State Council Information Office held a press conference in Beijing. Vice Minister of Commerce Li Fei, Vice Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Tan Pichuang, Vice Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Zhang Shaogang, and Director of the Asia Department of the Ministry of Commerce Wang Liping introduced the situation of China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation and the 21st China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, and answered questions from reporters. Photo by Xinhua Agency reporter Jin Liang Kuai

After the "Golden Decade" and "Diamond Decade", we have embarked on a new stage of "diamond-encrusted crown". The theme of the 21st East China Expo and Summit is "Friendship, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and diamond-encrusted crown creates the future".

"The 21st East China Expo will build on the past and the future, further improve the quality and efficiency of the exhibition, build more consensus, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and further promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation to a new level." Vice Minister of Commerce Li Fei said.

After 20 years of development, the East China Expo has witnessed the continuous improvement of economic and trade exchanges between China and ASEAN countries and the continuous enhancement of practical cooperation in various fields. Li Fei introduced that China has remained ASEAN's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, and ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for four consecutive years. As of July this year, the cumulative two-way investment between China and ASEAN countries exceeded US$400 billion.

At present, China and ASEAN have implemented the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with high quality, negotiations on version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area have been accelerated, and free trade arrangements such as Cambodia and Singapore have been superimposed and empowered, creating new opportunities for regional development.

According to reports, Malaysia is the theme country for this year's East China Expo and Summit. The exhibition scale is nearly 200,000 square meters and there are more than 3000 exhibitors. Many "first" and "new" activities are worth looking forward to.

Li Fei said that this year's East China Expo will add new strategic emerging topics to showcase the latest developments and technical levels in emerging fields such as digital technology, green and low-carbon, new energy and intelligent connected vehicles; a new ASEAN high-tech product exhibition area will be established to focus on displaying High-tech achievements from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries; Gulf countries were invited to participate for the first time, with the United Arab Emirates as a special invited partner; The Yunshang East Expo has been further optimized to extend the service functions of the East Expo from the session to the whole year.

Tan Pichuang, Vice Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, introduced that this year's East China Expo held an exhibit selection activity for the first time to empower high-quality exhibits with the brand of the East China Expo to open up the market; it launched the China-ASEAN Youth Leaders Growth Plan for the first time to carry out the "Future Project" of youth exchanges and mutual learning "; Invited more countries from outside the region to participate in the exhibition. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization participated in the exhibition for the first time, and held a trip to Guangxi for Australia enterprises and a trip to Guangxi for overseas Chinese businessmen. In addition, the extension period of this year's East China Expo will be extended from 4 days to 5 days, adding one more day to the public open day than the previous session.

Li Fei said that standing at a new starting point and facing the future, he is willing to work with all ASEAN parties to further leverage the role of the China-ASEAN Expo as a platform and make more contributions to accelerating the construction of a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future and promoting regional economic integration. New contributions.