Export fair to open after delay ( 2003-08-06 09:41) (China Daily)
The 11th China Kunming Export Goods Fair will be held in the capital of
Southwest China's Yunnan Province on August 26, after being delayed by the SARS
epidemic.
The Kunming fair is mainly attended by Southeast Asian countries, so there
will be a special exhibition hall for the 10 members countries of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
As of August 1, more than 200 enterprises from the ASEAN countries had
applied to attend the fair, including 60 from Viet Nam and 40 from Thailand.
Yunnan Province is geographically close to the ASEAN member countries and has
a border more than 4,000 kilometres long with Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam.
The State Council has agreed to hold the first China-ASEAN Commodity Fair in
2005 based on the Kunming fair.
The opening of the special hall for ASEAN countries will provide useful
experience for the 2005 fair, Sun Xiaohong, secretary-general of the organizing
committee of this year's fair, said yesterday.
This year's fair will incorporate the first project fair for overseas Chinese
entrepreneurs based in ASEAN countries who want to invest in Southwest China.
In another development, the fifth guiding committee working conference of the
ASEAN Mekong Basin Development Co-operation organization was held yesterday in
Kunming.
Members of China's National Development and Reform Commission and
representatives of Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Viet Nam, the ASEAN secretariat
and the Asian Development Bank discussed the latest developments in the Mekong
Basin.
