China offers a special privilege to Lao exhibitors to display in 22 booths free of charge at the ASEAN- China expo in October this year, a China trade mission told Commerce Ministry yesterday. After a success of its first China-ASEAN Expo in November last year in Nanning, China is preparing for the second exhibition from October 19-22, again in Nanning.

The Chinese trade mission led by Political Consultant, vice president of Quangxi province, China, Mr. Jian Ginhe, met the Commerce Minister, Soulivong Daravong  and invited Laos to participate in the expo. “We want more participants from Laos, as it is a great opportunity for promoting trade and investment,” Said Mr. Jian Ginhe. Last year, there were 23 Lao booths, of which 12 booths were free of charge. The five main contents in the expo are commodity trade, investment and cooperation; trade in service, high-level forums and cultural exchange.

 

The service section will focus on tourism, science and technology and human resource development. In the expo, the potential tourism areas of each ASEAN country and China will be highlighted. The commodity trade will focus on improving the import-export processing between China and ASEAN countries and the world. The products to be displayed are machinery equipment, electrical and household appliances, hardware and construction materials, light industrial products and handicrafts, and agriculture products and foods. The tourism sectors will promote a “city of Charm” in China and each ASEAN country, highlighting hotel facilities and tourist attractions.

The participants are expected to come from leading manufacturers, major exporters, business investors, foreign contracting engineers, multinational companies and other worldwide enterprises, major travel agencies and tourist resorts, hotels, airlines and other hospitality businesses. They will be from China and ASEAN member countries and the expo will also attract global buyers, international investors and agency institutions for trade and investment. The main building, where the expo held, covers a construction area of 150.000 sqm, accommodating 15 indoor exhibition halls of different sizes, with raw exhibition space reaching 50.000 square meters enough for 3.000 booths. The outdoor raw space is spread over 26.000 sqm, enough for 500 booths. There are 11 conference halls and meeting rooms.

The expo will combine an exhibition and special forum-the China ASEAN Business and Investment Summit. The summit will also serve as a meeting ground for government officials, experts and scholars, chairpersons of chambers of commerce and CEOs to conduct dialogues and exchanges. Mr. Jian said, “ The first ASEAN-China expo held in Nanning last year was very successful.” The first ASEAN-China expo last year consisted of about 2.500 booths with more over 1.500 enterprises from over the world exhibiting their products with more than 10.000 purchasers and trade volume of US$1.084 billion. There were 129 cooperation projects with a total contractual volume of US$4.968 billion.

The Chinese economy is growing and China is eager to enter into trade deals with ASEAN member countries. In 2004, China exported to ASEAN a total of US$ 429 billion and it imported from ASEAN totally US$ 629.7 billion. Bilateral trade between China and ASEAN nations has increased yearly because of the frequently mutual promotion.

 

 

 

Lao-Thai business relations boosted
The Committee Conference for the Promotion Lao-Thai Business was held early this week in Luang Prabang province. The conference discussed a number of trade related issues and aimed to boost cooperation between businesses in Laos and Thailand.
This was the third such conference, with the last being held in 2003 Moukdahan province of Thailand. The last conference focused on solving conflicting perspectives on Lao-Thai business and investment.
This conference was the first to be held in Luang Prabang.
Delegates discussed the ways to solve issues that have been arisen since the last conference, particularly those related to private investment and border trade between the two countries.
The conference also focused on the ways to boost Lao-Thai business and the ways to better cooperate through the rule of law, particularly concerning trade and investment and handicraft development. The delegates also discussed referring trade issues to higher authorities for consideration for providing facility on the border trade transportation service.
The conference was co-chaired by Mr Boukeut Sansomsak, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mr Chuap Sayasane, from the Thai trade delegation.
Besides discussing trade and business development issues, the two sides also visited a number of archaeological, cultural and natural tourist sites in the area. They also visited a number of socio-economic development projects in the province.