The 2nd China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE) have entered the home stretch in preparations, as a 9-day countdown began. On September 17, a preparation working conference and also a motivation meeting was held in Changsha. Progresses in various aspects were announced at the conference.
Numerous participants have registered for the expo. As of September 16, more than 200 foreign guests have registered for participation, including 25 foreign ambassadors and ambassador delegations of six guest counties of honor. The foreign guests are from 47 embassies of African counties in China; eight international organizations, including United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and United Nations Women; transnational financial institutions, including Asian Infrastructure Investment (AIIB) and New Development Bank; the German Agency for International Cooperation or (GIZ); and, the Forum Macao. The number of registered domestic visitors exceeded 14,900 which doubles compared with the first session.
Investment and exhibition invitation is to conclude. The main exhibition hall will be open to the professional audiences on September 27, and open to the public on September 28 and 29. The indoor exhibits have been basically determined, while the exhibition invitation for nearly 4,000-sqm outdoor area has ended. In the Gaoqiao sub-exhibition area, the permanent exhibition pavilions have been completed. Operators of 17 foreign country pavilions have been determined, and 231 African and 182 domestic exhibitors have registered. Logistics and customs clearance service for the international exhibits are organized in a speedy way. More than 400 exhibitors and their exhibits have been put on records.
So far, 554 cooperation projects have been collected, among which 386 projects are expected to be negotiated on the expo platform, 176 to be contracted during the expo, and 115 have passed preliminary examination. The projects, worth nearly 16 billion US dollars in total, cover a wide range of fields, including trade, investment, engineering contract, and strategic cooperation. Nearly 500 enterprises in China-Africa trade had communicated before the expo, and reached tentative deals worth 200 million US dollars.
The Cloud CAETE construction is in full swing. The application channel for participating the China-Africa Commodity Exhibition has opened. The 2D and 3D exhibition system will be put into operation before September 20. The expo will make use of well-known African e-commercial platforms to organize online shopping events. More than 60 million CNY of exported commodities have been prepared. About 100 types of African specialty products are selected for imports online.
This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.
Translator: Pang Yuehui
Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn
