Zhang Xiaoqin, Deputy Secretary-General of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat, said that the FTZ will help reduce transaction costs, provide a larger market and create more trade opportunities by lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers. Through intergovernmental negotiations and consultations, it is conducive to establishing a more open and convenient investment mechanism and providing a more stable and reliable development environment for inter-enterprise cooperation. Therefore, China-ASEAN Expo, as the first Expo based on free trade zone in China, was held under the background of the continuous development of bilateral relations between China and ASEAN, the continuous introduction of economic and trade cooperation policies and the continuous improvement of investment mechanism. Under the promotion and guarantee of the government and the guidance of the agreement between the two sides, it will continue to innovate and develop with the construction process of the free trade zone.
Zheng Junjian, deputy director of Guangxi International Expo Bureau, believes that the characteristics of the Expo are two-way, which is conducive to promoting complementary advantages, achieving mutual benefit and win-win, and further promoting economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN countries. "The Expo will not only expand China's exports to ASEAN countries, but also promote ASEAN's exports to China; It will not only build a platform for China enterprises to "go global", but also promote domestic enterprises to invest and set up factories in ASEAN, carry out project contracting and labor cooperation, and at the same time create opportunities and provide convenience for ASEAN enterprises to invest in China. "
According to the "Early Harvest" plan of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between China and ASEAN, China and ASEAN countries will start to reduce tariffs on agricultural products at the beginning of 2004 at the latest, and reduce tariffs on about 600 agricultural products to zero by 2006. Among them, China and Thailand have implemented zero tariffs on 188 vegetables and fruits since June last year.
The first China-ASEAN Expo created unlimited business opportunities covering China and ASEAN, and attracted the attention of exhibitors and buyers from all over the world. Reporter 65438+1learned from the secretariat of China-ASEAN Expo in early October that more than 2,500 enterprises have applied for the first China-ASEAN Expo and more than 4,420 booths have applied. The exhibition covers more than 200 kinds of goods 1 1 industry, such as machinery and equipment, household appliances, electronic information, medical care, automobiles and motorcycles, hardware and minerals, chemical raw materials, light industrial technology, clothing and textiles.
"Pan-Pearl River Delta" Cooperation to Create "Accelerator"
China-ASEAN Expo not only builds an important platform for economic cooperation among ASEAN countries, but also opens a shortcut for China to enter the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, the largest regional economic sector newly launched.
Cao Bochun, Party Secretary of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone is located at the junction of China and ASEAN countries. The China-ASEAN Expo and its full play will provide a broader space for promoting the process of regional economic integration, expanding cooperation in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone and enjoying the business opportunities in the Free Trade Zone.
In terms of geography and transportation location, Guangxi plays an extremely important role in the "Pan-Pearl River Delta": Guangdong is adjacent to the east, and it is very convenient to travel to Guangzhou by land, sea and air; China Southwest Sea Passage has also been opened, connecting Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Nanning and other major western cities. At present, Guangxi is stepping up the construction of expressways from Wuzhou to Guangzhou and Baise to Kunming.
As the logistics hub of China-ASEAN Trade Area, Guangxi has a very important position. Guangxi is the only province in China that has both land borders and sea passages with ASEAN countries: the total mileage of expressways from Southeast Asia to Nanning exceeds 1000 km, and Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangchenggang along the Beibu Gulf are good seaports, which are not only the seaports in the west of China, but also the ports closest to Southeast Asia. From here, goods from ASEAN countries can go to the nine provinces of the "Pan-Pearl River Delta".
Governments and enterprises in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone are generally optimistic about the opportunities brought by the China-ASEAN Expo. In April this year, a Guangdong party and government delegation led by Zhang Dejiang, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, paid a five-day inspection tour to Guangxi. During this period, Guangdong and Guangxi enterprises signed project contracts 100 in Nanning, Guangxi, with a total investment of 48.6 billion yuan. This marks a breakthrough in the construction of the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone initiated by Guangdong in July 2003, and it has entered a substantive stage from the retreat stage in the past.
As two important members of the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, the governments of the two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau, expressed their willingness to promote enterprises from the two places to participate in the China-ASEAN Expo. At the beginning of June this year, the Guangxi delegation went to Hong Kong and Macao to promote the China-ASEAN Expo. This is the first provincial delegation to visit Hong Kong and Macao since the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone was launched. The governments of Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions expressed their willingness to build Hong Kong and Macao commercial streets in Nanning.
How can other provinces and regions in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone benefit from the China-ASEAN Expo? Cao Bochun pointed out that "serving ASEAN, serving the whole country and facing the world" is the purpose of holding China-ASEAN Expo in Guangxi. Guangxi will provide a service platform for all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, including the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. Guangxi will give full play to the role of the southwest sea passage, develop large-scale cooperation and alliances with provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in South China and Southwest China, jointly build regional markets, jointly develop superior resources, jointly promote industrial docking, jointly revitalize existing assets, jointly explore the ASEAN market, and finally promote the docking and interaction between the Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone and the ASEAN Economic Circle, thus creating a new situation for the common development of the two economic zones.
Guangxi installed a "new engine" across development.
Fan Xiaojun, a professor at the Business School of Guangxi University, believes that Nanning, the venue of the China-ASEAN Expo, is a proof of the remarkable enhancement of Guangxi's comprehensive strength. The achievements and great development potential of Guangxi's reform and opening up will attract domestic and foreign capital, technology, talents and other production factors to gather in the region, forming a huge flow of people, logistics, capital and information, providing favorable conditions for Guangxi's leap-forward development.
On the first level, it directly stimulated economic growth. The first thing is investment. China-ASEAN Expo is a grand event to promote the development of regional economic cooperation organizations with a population of 654.38+08 billion and a GDP of 2 trillion US dollars. It needs high-quality related supporting construction facilities, business facilities, transportation facilities, communication facilities and environmental protection facilities.
Followed by consumption. The holding of China-ASEAN Expo will attract a large number of tourists from home and abroad to Guangxi to seek business opportunities, discuss cooperation, study and study, and effectively stimulate consumption, thus driving Guangxi's rapid economic growth.
The second level is to promote the development of related industries. Convention and exhibition industry has a strong industry-driven effect, and its related industries such as commerce, architecture, media, tourism, catering, information industry and cultural industry will directly benefit from the preparation and convening of China-ASEAN Expo.
In addition, China-ASEAN Expo will become a window for all enterprises and industries in Guangxi to broaden their horizons, an educational process to grasp business opportunities and feel competition, and a practical platform to familiarize themselves with and apply international practices and advanced management methods.
The third level is to accelerate the integration of production factors and enhance the agglomeration effect and diffusion effect of Nanning. The advantages of developing large-channel economy in Guangxi and the favorable factors brought by holding the China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning will greatly improve the speed of integrating production factors in Guangxi. Under the influence of market mechanism, capital, technology, information, talents and other production factors are increasingly developing and gathering in Nanning-centered areas, and their radiation effects are also increasing, thus driving the development of neighboring cities and even neighboring provinces and regions.
At the same time, many enterprises at home and abroad will also pay unprecedented attention to and gather in Guangxi. Guangxi's resource advantages, location advantages, channel advantages, policy advantages and development potential will attract these enterprises to settle down and invest in Guangxi. In fact, some far-sighted large enterprises and well-known enterprises have already begun to take action, investing and setting up factories, companies or cooperating with enterprises in Guangxi. Since the beginning of this year, a large number of world-renowned enterprises such as Alcoa, Wal-Mart, time warner Inc., Stora Enso of Finland, Indonesian Golden Light Group and Malaysian Parkson have invested in Guangxi. It can be predicted that in the near future, the huge radiation effect brought by the China-ASEAN Expo will be fully manifested in Bagui. (End)
The zero tariff policy has brought prosperity to the fruit and vegetable trade in China and Southeast Asia.
Durian, mango, dragon fruit, mangosteen, longan ... these fruits imported from countries adjacent to Guangxi, such as Thailand and Vietnam, have recently appeared more and more in fruit retail stalls in the streets and lanes of Nanning. During the 165438+ China-ASEAN Expo, which opened on October 3rd, the products featuring ASEAN countries were everywhere in Nanning, which brought people closer to ASEAN psychologically.
On June 65438+1 October1in 2003, China and Thailand cancelled the tariff on fruit and vegetable products 188, which the media called "the first door of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area was gently opened with agricultural products". The gate soon became a bit crowded. By the first quarter of 2004, the fruit and vegetable trade volume between China and Thailand had reached US$ 654.38+0.654.38+0.40 billion, of which US$ 99.632 million was imported, including US$ 30.22 million for fruits and US$ 69.465438+0.2 million for vegetables, with year-on-year growth approaching and exceeding 654.38+0.50% respectively. The export value is $65,438+0,389,438+0,000.
Such rapid growth is due to the differences and complementarities in fruits and vegetables between China and ASEAN. Huang Dejian, an agricultural expert in Qinzhou City, China, said that tropical fruits such as durian, mangosteen and rambutan produced in Southeast Asia can only be planted in a few areas in China, while agricultural products such as apples, pears, grapes, cantaloupes, potatoes and onions in northern China are scarce in Southeast Asia, so it is necessary to exchange needed goods; However, there are seasonal differences in the time to market of longan, banana, litchi, tomato and other fruits and vegetables produced by both parties. "The difference and complementarity of agricultural products determine that there is huge room for development in expanding bilateral trade." Mr. Fan Kejiong, head of the Fruit and Vegetable Agricultural Products Company, the largest fruit import and export enterprise in Vietnam, said: "Vietnamese people like temperate fruits produced in China very much. Different from the past, they have higher and higher requirements for the quality of fruits. " At the first China-ASEAN Expo, the fruits in the north of China were dazzling, which showed the strong desire of merchants to enter the ASEAN market. Xu, manager of the international trade department of Xinjiang AsiaInfo International Economic and Trade Co., Ltd., told Xinhua that the tomato sauce they produced was exclusively for export, and this exhibition was to open the ASEAN market. China and most ASEAN countries are agricultural countries. It has been pointed out that compared with fruits, vegetables have more prominent advantages in China. If China is a huge consumption market of tropical fruits in ASEAN, then the demand market potential of China vegetables in ASEAN is huge. Mai Jianjun, an official of Pingxiang Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Guangxi, said: "The' Early Harvest' plan makes China's major agricultural producing areas face the challenge of adjusting fruit and vegetable planting strategies, improving international competitiveness and grasping ASEAN business opportunities." Agricultural products became the highlight of the first China-ASEAN Expo. A variety of fruits and vegetables are displayed in the specially set agricultural products exhibition hall. On the first day after the opening ceremony, China Agricultural Reclamation System signed 23 cooperation projects with ASEAN, including planting and processing projects in different places, indicating that trade promotes investment, involving an amount of 654.38+0.65 billion yuan. (End)