Eric's Insight: CSA Expo is flagship to Yunnan's opening-up under BRI

The third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing from October 17 to 18, marking the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Over the past decade, the China-South Asia Exposition (CSA Expo) has grown to be a flagship for Yunnan's opening-up under the BRI. Meanwhile, the expo has also enhanced Chinese neighborhood diplomacy, economic cooperation and people-to-people bonds with the south-southeast Asian countries and beyond.
Born out of Kunming fair

When it comes to the CSA Expo, the China Kunming Import and Export Fair, or the Kunming fair, will always follow, so some may wonder about such a juxtaposition. Actually, the Kunming fair, with its original name being China Kunming Export Goods Fair, can be seen as mother of the CSA Expo. If we say the expo is 10 years old this year, then the fair mother is 30.

Back to the early 1990s, the Chinese opening-up focused mostly on deltas of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, while Yunnan and its neighboring provinces in the Chinese hinterland were marginalized. But even then, the open-minded provincial elites already sensed the prevalence of regionalism in the general Asia Pacific, with the APEC and ASEAN mechanisms being typical manifestation.

Faced with the tides of regional cooperation, Yunnan province started consulting with its four neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Xizang/Tibet, as well as the prominent cities of Chongqing and Chengdu in southwest China, and they agreed on initiating the Kunming fair in August 1993. At the news, the late Chinese Premier Li Peng wrote an inscription for the event, hoping the provinces could jointly open wider to Southeast Asia. Then, the Kunming fair was approved as the fifth of its kind by the central government, following the regional fairs in Guangzhou, Harbin, Shanghai and Urumqi.

The 1st Kunming fair saw a participation of 1,226 businesses, with their exhibits occupying 1,466 booths at the Kunming International Trade Center on Chuncheng Road. It had a total turnover of 1.757 billion US dollars. At the 3rd Kunming fair in 1995, large business delegations from Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos were headed by their trade ministers, and together with the business representatives from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, the number of Southeast Asian personages was well above 1,500.

Kunming International Trade Center, the main venue of Kunming fair, was a modern, multi-functional and magnificent building in the 1990s, and it was later renamed the Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Center. Covering 225,000 square meters, the exhibiting center had some 2,600 standard booths, with other supporting facilities readily available. It was dubbed as first-class by international exhibitors back then.

The China Kunming Export Goods Fair grew well in general, except that its 11th edition was delayed by the SARS epidemic in 2003 and it was renamed as the China Kunming Import and Export Commodities Fair in 2004. Then, China was granted observer status at the 13th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in 2005. As bilateral trade was on the rise, the China-South Asia commodities exhibition began to be held in 2008 as part of the Kunming fair. The exhibition thrived in the following four years, paving the way for birth of the China-South Asia Exposition.

Gaining steam under BRI cooperation

Approved by the Chinese government, the first China-South Asia Exposition (CSA Expo) took place in central Yunnan's Kunming city in 2013, when the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed in central Asia and southeast Asia to increase connectivity among regions and underpin the human community of a shared future. The first expo was attended by some 600 international dignitaries from 42 countries and regions, and 423 foreign-funded projects were signed with a value of 598.2 billion yuan. The expo marked a brand-new beginning of regional cooperation between China and south Asia.

At the onset of 2015, President Xi Jinping had an inspection tour to Yunnan, and he suggested the province should serve as the Chinese pivot of opening-up to south and southeast Asia. In the “Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” outlined in March 2015, the CSA Expo was identified as an international exhibition that plays a constructive role at the regional and subregional levels, and Yunnan province, with its geographic advantage, was defined as “a new highlight of economic cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion, and a pivot of China's opening-up to South and Southeast Asia”.

Along with the rounds of infrastructure construction under the BRI, the super-large Kunming Dianchi International Convention and Exhibition Center was completed and put into use on the occasion of the 3rd CSA Expo in June 2015, when international dignitaries, exhibitors and merchants were amazed by the shining facility. With a construction area of 5.086 million square meters, the three-storey facility consumed an investment of 34.462 billion yuan. It is the biggest of its kind in southwest China. The 3rd CSA Expo was highlighted by attendance of the then Maldivian president Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who readily accepted the China-proposed 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the BRI cooperation in his remarks, hoping to deepen exchanges with Yunnan through the CSA Expo.

The 4th CSA Expo in 2016 invited in ministerial officials from 89 countries and regions for policy coordination among regions. When meeting with the then Yunnan governor Chen Hao, Nepalese vice president Nanda Bahadur Pun said Nepal appreciates the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, encouraging more Yunnan enterprises to invest in Nepal. International trade at the 4th expo amounted to 158.063 billion yuan, enhancing the unimpeded trade among China and south Asia.

Starting from 2017 when the 1st Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was inaugurated, the CSA Expo and the South and Southeast Asia Commodity Expo and Investment Fair (SSACEIF) were alternatively held in a bid to make the events more business-oriented and better coordinated with the national diplomatic agenda. Themed as Jointly Creating New Opportunities and Seeking New Development, the 2017 SSACEIF focused on exhibiting commodities from south-southeast Asian countries and facilitating cooperative negotiations between China and those countries.

The 5th CSA Expo in 2018 saw 456 contracts on clean energy, green food and tourism signed, involving some 800 billion yuan. Some 3,800 companies from 87 countries and regions attended the week-long exposition, and 60 events were held simultaneously to encourage win-win cooperation under the BRI. Among other things, the China-South Asia Cooperation Forum and the Forum on China-South Asia Technology Transfer and Collaborative Innovation were added to the traditional forums of the expo, such as the China-South Asia Business Forum and the China-South and Southeast Asian Think-tank Forum. The new forums signaled an upgrade of China's cooperation with the South Asian region.

Jointly organized by the China Chamber of International Commerce, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the SAARC, China-ASEAN Center and Secretariat of China-South Asia Expo, the SSACEIF has been held three times in 2017, 2019 and 2021 respectively. Compared with the CSA Expo that is hosted by Chinese Ministry of Commerce and Yunnan Provincial Government, the SSACEIF may sound less official, but both are held at the same venue and with the shared focus on south Asia and southeast Asia. In a way, the SSACEIF is a derivative of the CSA Expo, and they complement each other for policy coordination and investment promotion in the regions.

Growing to be flagship for Yunnan opening-up

The year 2019 ended with the totally unexpected Covid outbreak, and the economic activities and mechanisms for regional cooperation were hit hard, including the annual CSA Expo in Yunnan. However, the province created another derivative -- the online version of the CSA Expo that spurred e-commerce and digital economy amid the Covid pandemic. In December 2020, online exhibition of the Everlasting China-South Asia Expo was launched in Kunming, and around 10,000 enterprises from over 100 countries and regions signed up for the event. Ministerial commercial officials from Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar attended via video links, with live streaming staged for consuls to present their national specialties.

The online version of 2021 SSACEIF opened on August 25, inviting in 27,929 exhibitors and 11,693 buyers. Yunnan vice-governor Qiu Jiang said that since its inception in 2017, the SSACEIF has spurred regional development and cooperation in south Asia, southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean Rim areas, manifesting the Belt and Road philosophy of wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. Vietnamese deputy minister of industry and trade Do Thanh Hai, acting secretary-general of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Zulfiqar Ali Butt and others spoke at the opening via videos, stressing joint fight against Covid pandemic for faster economic recovery.

Having acquired a much larger exhibition venue and the SSACEIF derivative for professionalism and having gone through the online versions in the roughest days of Covid spikes, the CSA Expo gained more resilience. The 6th CSA Expo reached a successful conclusion in November 2022. 169 investment agreements were signed, with the investment volume exceeding 400 billion yuan. The expo saw first International Cooperation Forum on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Trade and Investment, facilitating trade cooperation and high-quality development among RCEP members.

This year 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of both the BRI and the CSA Expo, allowing us to review the past decade while looking into the future. During the 7th CSA Expo in August, 342 projects were signed with an investment of 412.6 billion yuan, while 141 business contracts were signed with a value of 10.5 billion US dollars. Sri Lankan prime minister Dinesh Gunawardena said China's development has brought development opportunities to neighboring countries and regions. Mahesh Saharia, chairman of the Center for Promotion of India-China Cooperation, said that opportunities and challenges coexist. "But as long as we stay in unity, all obstacles will be eliminated."

Over the past decade, the CSA expo has grown to be a comprehensive platform for goods trade, investment promotion, tourism cooperation and cultural exchange between China and South Asia. Under the BRI cooperation, the expo is increasingly appealing to Asian friends and beyond, and driven by the expo, the total trade volume between Yunnan and South Asian countries has increased by 2.5 times. As China has rolled out eight steps to support high-quality BRI cooperation at the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, we believe the CSA expo will usher in a 2.0 version and play an even bigger role in regional integration and Yunnan's opening-up.

Writing by Wang Shixue; Proofreading by Zu Hongbing and Wang Huan; Photos: Yunnan Daily and others