The 2004 China Kunming Export Commodities Fair will be held in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, from June 6 to 10.

This year, more improvements will be made to the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) exhibition hall and, for the first time, a South Asia exhibition hall will be opened. These moves reflect the themes of the Kunming fair: exploiting geographic proximity and shared borders; promoting communications between the three major markets of China, Southeast Asia and South Asia; taking advantage of Southeast and South Asia as economic complements and seeking mutual development for them.

The Kunming Fair has always been closely connected with Southeast Asian nations, with which southwest China shares some 4,060 kilometers of border. Yunnan Province lies adjacent to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar and is an important gateway connecting Southeast and South Asia. Economic and cultural exchanges between southwest China and these two regions have historically been conducted through Yunnan.

In light of Yunnan's geographic advantages, since it was formally approved by the state in 1993 this state-level and regional export commodities fair has been jointly sponsored by the governments of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, Guangxi Zhuang and Tibet autonomous regions, and Chongqing Municipality and Chengdu City.

According to Yu Dingcheng, deputy director of the Yunnan Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, more than 4,000 guests from approximately 60 countries attend the fair each year, and over 1,000 domestic enterprises from 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities participate. Ranging from import and export to foreign investment, and from international economic and technological cooperation to border trade, the previous 11 fairs have recorded total trade deals reaching US$20 billion. Some 60 percent of that amount reflects trade between China and Southeast Asian and South Asian nations.

Yu says that in order to make the Kunming Fair the primary trade platform between China and ASEAN nations, this year's focus will be on making further improvements to the ASEAN exhibition hall, border trade exhibition hall and investment exhibition hall. Currently, nine of the ten ASEAN nations have registered to participate in the fair. There are 235 registered exhibition booths, with 30 from Thailand, 30 from Myanmar, 7 from Malaysia, 12 from the Philippines and 6 from Brunei. Representatives are still encouraging enterprises in Laos to participate.

The scale of ASEAN enterprises, the quality of products and the organization of the exhibition have all improved this year, says Yu. The ASEAN hall will remain the highlight of the fair.

The opening of the South Asian Hall this year means that the Kunming Fair will attract enterprises, business people and products from South Asian nations, enhancing the influence and attraction of the fair and promoting the development and cooperation of the three big markets. Enterprises from Bangladesh have already registered to participate and some Indian enterprises have indicated their intent to do so.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Wu Nanlan and Wang Qian, May 26, 2004)