Agriculture Exhibition to Promote Further Coop in China-ASEAN Region

Anchor: For the first time, an exclusive agricultural services exhibition is being held in Nanning, the capital city of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Agricultural materials, agro-based products, foodstuffs, agricultural enterprises and industrial parks are showcased at the exhibition to coincide with the ongoing session of the 6th China-ASEAN Expo. Ting Ting has more.

Reporter: The newly-added agricultural exhibition consists of 600 booths. However, that still fell short of demand.Nong Rong, Vice Secretary General of the CAEXPO Secretariat, says many enterprises have benefited hugely from the agricultural cooperation between China and ASEAN countries over the past years. This is the reason why more firms have applied to attend this year's event.

"Agriculture is one of the earliest sectors that benefitted from the CAFRT construction under the framework of Early Harvest program. It ranks top among the ten cooperation fields confirmed by China and ASEAN."

In 2004, China and ASEAN launched a joint programme called "Early Harvest", which set to scrap tariffs on about 600 agricultural imports on both sides by 2006. The program was part of the Free Trade Area framework agreement signed by China and the ASEAN members in 2002.

Guangxi State Farms Group is one of the forerunners in the field of China-ASEAN agriculture cooperation. Zhang Junxiong, chief executive of the Farms Group said his company has been engaged in the production of cash crops in some of the ASEAN countries.

"In addition to Viet Nam, we have begun cooperation with ASEAN Members such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Philippines. In Viet Nam and Cambodia, we have built production and processing bases of cassava. In Myanmar, we have participated in the production of sisal hemp."

Zhang Junxiong says having such high yields this year, Guangxi State Farms Group is bringing more ambitious plans to the 6th China-ASEAN Expo, which is an important platform to promote regional cooperation.

"Our group has an inclusive briefing conference and a contract signing ceremony during the CAEXPO. We have a total of 35 projects to promote. And the volume of all that contracted cooperation projects will hit 16 billion Yuan."

While many Chinese firms are planning overseas investments, some are still looking for cooperative opportunities in the domestic market.

Judy Zeng, an investment consultant from Taiwan says many of her clients have plans to develop agriculture in Guangxi.

"We have the desire to develop agriculture in this region since the climate of Guangxi is quite similar with that of Taiwan.

In fact, some agricultural productions have already succeeded here such as plantation of mango and litchi."

Ting Ting, CRI News.