Seventh China-South Asia Expo opens in Kunming

The seventh China-South Asia Expo opened on Wednesday in Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, with an aim to further deepen economic and trade cooperation. The expo, with the theme of "Solidarity and Coordination for Common Development," is scheduled to run until Sunday.

The expo has set up 15 exhibition halls featuring diverse themes including South Asia Pavilion, Southeast Asia Pavilion, resource-based economy pavilion, port economy pavilion, biomedicine and healthcare pavilion, and a regional cooperation pavilion, with a total area of 150,000 square meters, showcasing both offline and online contents, according to the organizer.

Various kinds of events such as a cooperation forum, a business forum, a think tank forum, and a technology transfer and innovation cooperation conference will be held during the expo. It has now become an important platform for multilateral diplomacy, economic and trade cooperation, and cultural exchanges between China, South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

When the first expo was held in 2013, the trade volume between China and South Asian countries amounted to less than 100 billion U.S. dollars, but the figure reached 197.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, with an average annual growth rate of 8.3 percent.