Sri Lanka to join 13th CAEXPO as special guest country

Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Guangzhou has confirmed that Sri Lanka will join the upcoming China-ASEAN Expo (‎CAEXPO) as a special guest country in a confirmation letter to the Secretariat of CAEXPO earlier. 

The Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka, Rishad Bathiudeen will lead a delegation to the 13th CAEXPO and deliver his speech during the opening ceremony. Besides, a series of special guest country activities e.g. Sri Lanka pavilion, national promotion conference and trade fair will be held during the 
13th CAEXPO.

 Sri Lanka plays an important role in Asia. It is a crucial trading partner of China and ASEAN which highly complement with each other, portraying high development potential. CAEXPO, is a prominent platform that advance and integrate the shared opportunities of cooperation and development of China and ASEAN countries. The participation of Sri Lanka as the special guest country of CAEXPO will further boost the bilateral cooperation and economic growth between Sri Lanka and China as well as ASEAN countries.

 CAEXPO is co-sponsored by the Chinese government and CAEXPO secretariat as well as the 10 ASEAN countries. With the vision to promote China-ASEAN friendly cooperation, advancing the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) construction and building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, CAEXPO is an effective platform for China-ASEAN cooperation. Having been successfully organized for 12 consecutive years, it has attracted high-profiled participants from political and diplomatic circles: participation of 51.9 hundred thousands of merchants, 25580 enterprises, more than 100 business associations and delegations from 126 City of Charm as well as 143 conferences involving 30 different fields.

 As an international event for economic and trade exchanges, CAEXPO has shown the world from the very beginning that it is not only a great event for China or ASEAN, but an international stage opens to the world with “10+1” as its foundation. Also, CAEXPO has organized trade and economic exchanges activities for “10+6” countries (that is: the 10 ASEAN countries plus the RCEP member countries namely, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, India, New Zealand) as well as to countries along Maritime Silk Road. 

The special guest country is a major mechanism for the CAEXPO open to the whole globe. It targets to expand the exchanges and cooperation of China and ASEAN with other economies, thus helping enterprises further explore the international market. From 2014, this mechanism has invited a country outside of the China-ASEAN region to join the CAEXPO as Special Guest Country. The representatives from Australia and Republic of Korea delivered their speech during the CAEXPO Opening Ceremony and successfully organized their country pavilion, national promotion conference and 
trade exhibition.