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Chinese companies explore Southeast Asia

CCTV.com

09-12-2016 05:25 BJT

While Guangxi was preparing for the expo, our reporter Yang Zhou travelled to the region's port city of Qinzhou, the gateway to trade with ASEAN. Local businesses there have a better chance of accessing the lucrative Southeast Asia market, as cooperation between China and ASEAN grows.

For a long time, Doctor Cheng Linyou has been working on healthcare products that will soon be introduced to the Malaysian market. He works for a traditional Chinese medicine company in Qinzhou. For the company, the Malaysian market is close, but unknown.

"We used to think about plans to enter the southeast Asia market years ago because traditional Chinese medicines are more welcomed there than in other international markets, but we soon gave up because we know so little about them. We also have concerns about policy and logistics," said Cheng Linyou, R&D director of Huibaoyuan Pharmaceutical.

3 years ago, leaders of China and Malaysia agreed to jointly build the industrial zone in Qinzhou. Dr. Cheng and his colleagues got what they urgently needed - a link to the overseas market.

"Through this platform, we have signed contracts with Malaysian partners who will distribute our products there. We have also gained access to the market for high quality raw materials. Many herbs which we use in our products are grown in Malaysia," Cheng said.

The industrial zone is just part of China's strategy, known as the new Maritime Silk Road. The project aims to establish deeper trade links with Asia, and especially ASEAN countries.

We have just traveled 120 kilometers from Nanning, where the China ASEAN Expo is happening. Now we are on the shore of Beibu Bay. The closer you get to the water, the greater you appreciate how vast this gateway to neighbouring countries is. Beyond the port here and across the bay is the South China Sea and then - the ASEAN market.

Unlike Doctor Cheng whose company is heading south, Wen Ming's trading companies are bringing ASEAN products back to China.

Wen Ming's company is much more sensitive to the global economic downturn. Tumbling commodity prices squeezed the profits from his business which used to import mineral ore from Australia. But China's policy of looking toward ASEAN give him an idea.

"Our business underwent a transformation last year. We imported over 20,000 tons of rice from Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos this year. We are benefitting from the free trade port here in Qinzhou which imports rice and fruit from ASEAN," Wen said.

Trade volume with ASEAN members has accounted for 20 percent of business activities in Qinzhou's free trade port. It increased 22 percent in the first seven months of this year.

"Trade is likely to keep going up because we have opened many more routes recently to connect the major ports in ASEAN countries, to make trade with the bloc a lot easier," said Wang Wenyuan, deputy director of Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area.

China has invested significant resources into developing trade links with ASEAN and in Qinzhou at least, business is booming.

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