For the sake of actively accelerating the construction of “the Belt and Road”, expanding trade with Sri Lanka, as well as promoting bilateral economic and trade cooperation, the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region holds the “2018 China Guangxi Products Exhibition （Sri Lanka）& China Guangxi Brands Silk Road Series （Sri Lanka）” at SLECC, Colombo, Sri Lanka on the morning of 18th May, 2018. Mr. Yang Zuoyuan , the Economic & Commercial Counsellor of Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Sri Lanka; Mr. Ma Jixian, the Deputy Director-General of Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China; Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Sri Lanka; Mr. Asela de Livera, the Senior Deputy President of National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), will delivery speeches on the opening ceremony. The chief leaders Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), Sri Lanka-China Business Council (SLCBC), and guests from all walks of life in Sri Lanka will attend the opening ceremony and visit the exhibition hall.
The friendly exchanges between China and Sri Lanka have a time-honored history. The two countries have had close cooperation in culture and trade since ancient times. Under the promotion between Mr. Xi Jinping, the President of People’s Republic of China and Mr. Maithripala Sirisena, the President of Sri Lanka, in recent years, the strategic cooperative partnership between China and Sri Lanka has entered the best development period. The exchanges and cooperation in the economic and trade fields between the two countries have become increasingly close. In 2017, the bilateral trade volume reached 4.4 billion U.S. dollars. The all-round development of China-Sri Lanka relations has led to the prosperity of the cooperation between Guangxi and Sri Lanka. In 2017, the trade volume between Guangxi and Sri Lanka totaled 45.73 million U.S. dollars, showing its huge growth potential.
Guangxi is an important province along the coast, the border and the river of the southwestern of Chinese mainland. Located at the joint area of the three major economic circles of ASEAN, the South and Southwest China, Guangxi boasts a total area of 237,600 square kilometers and a total population of 56 million; in 2017, the GDP of Guangxi was 301.7 billion U.S. dollars and the foreign trade was 57.2 billion U.S. dollars. Guangxi is rich in natural resources, such as minerals, hydropower, agriculture, forestry, oceans, and tourism. It is one of the most important industrial bases in China’s southwest coast and has the only marine outfall in southwest China. Guangxi has an outstanding policy advantage for it not only enjoys the open policy in areas along coasts, borders and rivers, but also enjoys the western development policy and the policy on ethnic regional autonomy. It is one of the regions with the greatest development potential and investment value in China.
As far back as 2,000 years, Beihai City, Guangxi opened a route to India and Sri Lanka and the route became an important departure port for the ancient Maritime Silk Road to Southeast and South Asia. Nowadays, Guangxi is fully implementing the development orientation given by the Central Government and actively building an important gateway for the organic integration with the “The Belt and Road”. Sri Lanka is an important country in the 21st century Maritime Silk Road. “The Belt and Road” initiative has provided a broad space for the cooperation in opening new areas between Guangxi and Sri Lanka.
The “2018 China Guangxi Products Exhibition （Sri Lanka） & China Guangxi Brands Silk Road Series （Sri Lanka）”, which opens today, is a consecutive product exhibition held in Sri Lanka by Guangxi. Exhibitors involved in daily household products, handicrafts, food and tea, building materials and machinery, electronic products and other industries. Their products sell well all over the world. The good image of Guangxi brands is hoped to be displayed through the exhibition, so that the entrepreneurs of both sides could take this exhibition as an opportunity, the resources advantages of the Sri Lankan market could be fully played, and the scale of trade between the two sides could be expanded.
During the exhibition period, a series of economic and trade activities are also held, such as “Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Environment Promotion and the Exchange Conference of China-Sri Lanka Entrepreneurs”, “Jewelry and Tea Fashion Show”, etc. to help the Chinese and Sri Lanka entrepreneurs cooperate with each other. Guangxi’s advantageous enterprises are encouraged to invest in Sri Lanka to participate in the construction of Port-neighboring Industrial Park, special economic zones, highways, and railways. At the same time, it accelerated the cooperation between the two advantageous industries, such as tea and jewelry, and actively helped Sri Lankan tea and jewelry industries explore the Chinese and ASEAN markets by Guangxi; it also explored cooperation between the two sides in the industries of high-tech, biological medicine and electronic information, and promoted Guangxi and Sri Lanka to enjoy all-round, mutual benefit and common development.
