"ASEAN Elements" Bloom Everywhere China ASEAN Cooperation "Nanning Channel" Effect Highlights Southeast Asia | ASEAN | Nanning
Nanning, September 10th (China News Agency) - Southeast Asian style streets, specialty restaurants, themed performances... Walking into the Fangte ASEAN Mythical Theme Park located on Qinghuan Road in Nanning, Guangxi, one can fully appreciate the rich Southeast Asian exotic charm. This cultural expo park focuses on the famous cultural elements of the ten ASEAN countries, using modern high-tech methods to showcase the customs and traditions of the ten ASEAN countries.
The 20th China ASEAN Expo is about to be held in Nanning. On the eve of the East China Expo, Anhui tourists Zhou Lingling and Zhang Jingjing teamed up to "check in" Nanning. They were dressed in Southeast Asian style clothing and immersed in projects such as "Walking into Angkor", "Song of the Thousand Islands", and "Searching for Merlion" at Nanning Fantawild. "It's really satisfying to be able to 'travel freely to the ten ASEAN countries in a day' without going abroad," Zhou Lingling said.
Recently, tourists have been experiencing ASEAN culture at the Fangte ASEAN Mythology Theme Park located in Nanning, Guangxi. Photo by Huang Yanmei, journalist from China News Agency
Nanning is the closest provincial capital city to ASEAN in China. With the hosting of the East China Expo, Nanning has become one of the most familiar Chinese cities in ASEAN countries. Strolling through the streets and alleys of Nanning, the rich and colorful "ASEAN elements" are obvious. Landmark buildings that integrate ASEAN traditional styles are rising from the ground, and ASEAN specialty cuisine is blooming everywhere.
"I have achieved multiple dreams in Nanning." Jin Li, 42 years old this year, comes from Ubun Prefecture, Thailand and currently operates a Thai restaurant and a Thai clothing store in Nanning. "My husband is from Nanning and we have three lovely children living here happily. I will continue to work hard in Nanning and build a 'cultural bridge' between Thailand and China through food and clothing," Jin Li said in an interview with China News Agency.
Having participated in the East China Expo multiple times has elevated the career of Malaysian entrepreneur Huang Guolong. "The Chinese consumer market is huge, with unlimited business opportunities. Our company's durian products are constantly developing and innovating, and the variety of products has increased from four eight years ago to more than 80 today," he said.
In recent years, a series of bilateral meetings between China and ASEAN have been held in Nanning within the framework of the East China Expo, forming the "Nanning channel" for open cooperation between China and ASEAN. Nanning has gradually developed into a "transit station" for trade between China and ASEAN, and its geographical advantages and market prospects in opening up cooperation with ASEAN are increasingly favored by the business community.
The China Singapore Nanning International Logistics Park project, with a total investment of approximately 10 billion yuan, is accelerating its progress. The China ASEAN specialty commodity gathering center in the logistics park offers a wide range of ASEAN country specialty products such as Vietnamese coffee, Thai seasoning, and Singapore meat and bone tea.
"We will leverage Nanning's geographical advantages and strive to build the China ASEAN characteristic commodity gathering center into the first stop for ASEAN businesses to enter the Chinese market and an important window for Chinese businesses to enter the ASEAN market," said Zhao Haiyan, Chairman of Guangxi Xinzhong Industry Investment Co., Ltd.
On August 27th, the China ASEAN Fruit Trading Center project was unveiled and launched. Photo by Huang Yanmei, journalist from China News Agency
Relying on the industrial layout planning of the China Singapore Nanning International Logistics Park and the advantages of the online and offline one-stop commercial platform of the China ASEAN Characteristic Commodity Gathering Center, the China ASEAN Fruit Trading Center project has recently been unveiled and launched. This project will build a fruit import and export trade supply chain industrial chain system, and create a regional fruit distribution center facing ASEAN.
"Nanning is committed to building a cross-border industrial chain, supply chain, and value chain for ASEAN. We will plan to promote the construction of China ASEAN cross-border industrial integration and development cooperation zones with high quality, and accelerate the construction of an international metropolis open to ASEAN cooperation." said Hou Gang, Mayor of Nanning.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the East China Expo. Over the past 20 years, from serving the construction of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area to promoting the "the Belt and Road" initiative to take root in ASEAN countries, to boosting the entry into force and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the East China Expo has witnessed the opening door of China is getting bigger and bigger, and the process of China ASEAN regional economic integration continues to develop in depth.
Professor Zhai Kun from the School of International Relations at Peking University believes that the East China Expo has become a high-end platform for China and ASEAN countries to gather consensus and connect development strategies. It is an effective carrier for promoting bilateral and multilateral economic and trade exchanges and cooperation, and promoting trade facilitation.
Sui Guohua, Vice President of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that the 20th East China Expo will be based on a new starting point of cooperation between China and ASEAN, focus on high-level opening and cooperation, hold the first side meeting on the theme of "institutional opening: a new pattern of regional economic development", form relevant achievements with ASEAN countries in deepening rules, regulations, management, standards and other areas of institutional opening, upgrade the high-energy platform for open cooperation such as the pilot free trade zone, create a convenient place for domestic and international dual cycle market operation, inject new momentum into the regional economy, and promote the formation of a new pattern of regional development.
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