Alex How

THE CAEXPO Secretariat continues its effort in staging a splendid and pragmatic agriculture exhibition with a series of trade promotion events in the Agriculture Exhibition of the 6th China-Asean Expo (CAEXPO) that will be held from Oct 20 to 24, 2009 in Nanning, China.

The exhibition will focus on agricultural products from China and the 10 Asean countries, providing more opportunities for cooperation among agricultural enterprises of the 11 countries including Brunei Darussalam.

According to the CAEXPO Secretariat, the exhibition will be staged in such a way that advantageous agricultural products of China and Asean countries are showcased respectively at the main and sub-venues. Brunei agricultural entrepreneurs are urged to take up this golden opportunity to display their local products at the event and build up their international network.

The main venue for Asean products will be held at the Nanning International Convention & Exhibition Center, while the sub-venue is located at the Guangxi Exhibition Center, showcasing agro-based products from China. Both exhibitions will highlight agricultural materials, agro-based products, and packaged food products.

The Summit Forum on China-Asean Agricultural Sector Development, the Briefing Conference of Cross-border Procurement of International Cooperatives, and theme business matching events for agro-products will be concurrently held. Based on its own business database, the CAEXPO Secretariat has extended more than 200,000 invitation letters to trade visitors from home and abroad, with special invitation, given to Shandong, Qingdao, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai and other agriculturally-developed provinces or cities in China, to attract specialised trade groups from these areas.

Agriculture is one of the top 10 priority cooperation fields of China and Asean, and is also one of the fields in, which China-Asean Free Trade Area (CAFTA) first realised zero tariffs. China and Asean has been maintaining good economic and trade relations in terms of agriculture. With the advance of the CAFTA, the benefits of bilateral tariff reduction, as well as investment and trade facilitation in agricultural sector have become more obvious.

China and the Asean countries have shown great enthusiasm for the agriculture exhibition, with a number of famous and quality enterprises from both sides applying for attendance. So far, there have been 520 businesses applying for 820 exhibition booths, far exceeding the total 600 available.

About 250 Chinese brand enterprises are included on the list of exhibiting enterprises, such as Nongfu Spring, Panpan Food, Fenjiu Group, Qufu Confucius Family Liquor Co Ltd, Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery Group Co Ltd, Guiyang Nanming Laoganma Special Flavour Foodstuffs Co Ltd and Liuzhou Chemical Industry Co Ltd. Fifty Taiwan-based companies in Chinese mainland are also attracted to the exhibition.

During the CAEXPO, direct-chartered flight will be opened between Brunei and Nanning to facilitate the trip of the Brunei delegates and trade visitors. The flight will depart from Brunei International Airport on Oct 17 and will return to Brunei on Oct 25.

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