The upcoming annual Kunming Import and Export Commodity Fair is expected to open a special hall for exhibitors from south Asia, the organizer announced in Kunming Friday.

The fair, an annual event since 1993, will be jointly hosted by six provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in southern and southwest China, including Chongqing municipalities, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and the Tibet autonomous region.

The fair has been turned into a trade pageant catering to traders in south and Southeast Asian countries. It attracts business people from scores of countries and regions each year, said Yu Dingcheng, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Trade Department.

The current session will be held June 6-10. It reports a bigger scale and higher product quality compared with previous sessions. Special halls for machinery and electric products, tobacco, information, farm produce, light industrial goods, printing and border trade will also be added this year to tally with international practices.

Since the hall for ASEAN opened last year, nine of the 10 ASEAN member nations have applied for the current exhibition, reserving 235 booths.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2004)