Opening ceremony for the China-ASEAN Light Industrial Products Fair, 2010. Photos Provided to China Daily

The 2011 China-ASEAN Light Industrial Products Exposition to be held in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, October 21 to 26, will have a vast array of products that are closely related to everyday life.

The expo, which is a part of the 8th China-ASEAN Expo, will center on the 20th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue, the year of friendly China-ASEAN contacts, and the first anniversary of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone.

It will be held in Nanning's China South City Convention and Exhibition Center, in a 15,000-square-meter space with 614 booths, and will have four main areas: jewelry, handicrafts, watches and clocks; gifts and consumable electronic goods; everyday-use items; and imported goods.

The expo's theme is "environmental protection and cooperation" and it will have some high-level conferences and forums, including the China-ASEAN environmental protection forum.

At last year's Expo, the light industrial products exhibition proved to be a major success, with 335,000 visitors and 1.45 billion yuan worth of deals.

This year's activity is intended to "optimize light industrial resources and procurement in the Pan-Beibu Gulf region and ASEAN countries, through a large-scale, intensive trading event involving the most recent light industrial materials and products", according to local government officials.

More opportunities

The stream of visitors at the first day of last year's exhibition amazed Xu Yang, an executive director of China South City Holdings, who spoke at one of its forums.

Xu's company is building the China South City Nanning, a trade center serving as an integrated logistics platform for industrial materials and products.

The center is expected to boost the city's economic prosperity as well as further drive the cooperation between Guangxi and ASEAN countries.

"I have great expectation and confidence in the possibilities of China South City Holdings in Nanning since the light industrial exhibition draws a lot of people and provides many opportunities," Xu said.

"Though located at the juncture of the urban and rural areas, the center, as a huge logistic complex for trade and business, must be full of business opportunities and be immensely attractive," he added.

Even though there are many successful exhibitions in Nanning already - for small commodities, industries, agriculture, and mining - this is the first time for it to hold an advanced light industrial products exhibition of goods that are closely related to local people's lives.

In fact, this year's exhibition, with its focus on "environmental protection and cooperation", gives priority to everyday items.

This light industrial products exhibition accords with China South City Holdings' own goals, which are to build a world-class trade site for raw materials and commodities for suppliers and purchasers in the AESAN countries.

China South City Holdings has in fact held the China (Shenzhen) International Industrial Expo four times already, so its maturity, operational experience, and reputation can help guarantee the coming exhibition's success.

This light industrial products exhibition could become an international display site for commodities for the China-ASEAN free trade zone, a combination of exhibit and market for a larger, more experienced, and specialized market.

Variety of ASEAN and Chinese goods on display at last year's light industrial products fair in Nanning (top, middle); it attracted an unexpectedly large number of visitors from the mainland and overseas (above).

(China Daily 07/12/2011 page6)