From 10 to 13 September 2021, the 18th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) was held in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. The ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) successfully set up a booth at the CAEXPO for the ninth consecutive year.

Through light box photos and English-Chinese bilingual materials including publications and videos, ACC booth gave a comprehensive introduction on ACC’s missions and functions and a vivid demonstration on its achievements during the first half of the year 2021. In addition, to promote ASEAN-China friendly exchanges and cooperation, a prize challenge Q&A named “ASEAN-China Relations” was organised through ACC’s Wechat account at the booth with the participation of enthusiastic audience. Over 3,000 visitors stopped at the booth to watch the exhibition, collect materials, listen to introductions, make enquiries and take pictures, creating a warm atmosphere.  

On 11 September, ACC Secretary-General Chen Dehai visited ACC booth and interacted cordially with the public. He also met with Ms. Wei Yu, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office of Guangxi who came to visit the booth. The two sides exchanged views on jointly promoting ASEAN-China friendly exchanges and cooperation, especially the economic and trade cooperation between Guangxi and ASEAN Member States (AMS). 

During the CAEXPO, ACC booth welcomed diplomatic envoys and government officials from Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand and other countries. Representatives from Chinese provincial and municipal governments, chambers of commerce and business associations, as well as enterprises in different fields, also came to talk with ACC officials. The visitors, while learning about ACC’s roles and exploring possibilities for cooperation with ACC, made enquiries about exploring ASEAN markets and deepening ASEAN-China cooperation in related fields. The booth also attracted journalists from Xinhua News Agency, Global Times Online, 21st Century and the Department of Information and Publicity of the CAEXPO. 

With the theme of “Sharing the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, Jointly Building the China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future”, the 18th CAEXPO continued to use a mixed model with “on-site exhibition + online exhibition” and attracted enterprises from more than 40 countries and regions. The exhibition area for overseas exhibitors accommodated 905 booths, which increased by 13.4 percent from the previous year and included 575 booths for AMS enterprises. Moreover, the CAEXPO added a special RCEP exhibition area to the “Belt and Road” exhibition area to promote the development of RCEP and held for the first time an online“Festival of Selected Goods”, inviting Wei Ya, a well-known e-commerce anchor, to promote products through live-streaming.