The 4th China-South Asia Expo and the 24th China Kunming Import & Export Fair kicked off in the city of Kunming, Yunnan province on June 12. Wang Yang, the member of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the vice Premier of the State Council attended the opening ceremony and made a keynote speech. The Chinese vice Minister of Commerce Gao Yan also attended and addressed the meeting.

Gao Yan said with a population of 3 billion, China and South Asian countries are the world’s largest emerging market, and also the region with the fastest economic growth. There are great potential and expanding space for all countries to conduct mutually beneficial cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and complementary advantages. Over recent years, China and South Asian countries took the opportunity of jointly building the “belt and road” to make remarkable progress in aspects such as trade and economic cooperation, covering trade, investment, infrastructure, industrial parks, agriculture and livelihood. According to the statistics, the bilateral trade value in 2015 amounted to US$11.12 billion, going up 5% year on year. It has maintained the momentum of stable development this year. The two-way investment and cooperation grew rapidly. In January-April, the Chinese enterprises made a direct non-financial investment of US$600 million in South Asia and the contractual value newly signed with South Asian countries reached US$5.8 billion, going up 5.3 times and 1.5 times respectively year on year. With some South Asian countries, China promoted to build the FTA, provided assistance for the South Asian countries within its ability, made active efforts to help the relevant countries to overcome natural disasters and step up the sustainable economic and social development.

Gao Yan said the expo focused on the promotion of “belt and road” construction, and was themed on “Amity, Sincerity, Mutual Benefit and Inclusiveness for Win-win Cooperation”, corresponding to China’s trade and economic cooperation with South Asian countries. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and governmental departments of South Asian countries and people from all walks of life will make joint efforts to adhere to “Amity, Sincerity, Mutual Benefits and Inclusiveness”, and strengthen to dock the “belt and road” initiative with the countries’ development strategies on the principle of “co-negotiating, co-building and co-sharing”. We will create conditions to expand South Asia’s exports to China, steadily promote mutually-beneficial cooperation and actively build a community of common interests, common responsibility and common destiny with policy exchanges, infrastructure connectivity, smooth trade, financing and trust.

Attending the ceremony were five state leaders from Maldives, Vietnam, Nepal, Cambodia, and Laos, the Secretary-general of the South Asia Union and 35 foreign ministerial officials, as well as 5,000 exhibitors across 89 countries and regions.