China-Northeast Asia Expo: Multilateral Cooperation for a Brighter Future

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A few days ago, dignitaries and merchants from six northeast Asian countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Mongolia gathered in Changchun, capital city of northeastern China's Jilin province, to promote their cooperation.

They came to attend the 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo in the place where the first vehicle of the People's Republic of China was born. The just-concluded expo is the largest, and most effective platform in this region for attracting investment, promoting business exchange and cooperation.

Some 30,000 merchants from 109 countries and regions participated in the event, while 1,337 enterprises and institutions attended an accompanying exhibition.

This year's expo is highlighted by two "first time." One is the setup of the "Pavilion of the 5G New Era," focusing on the most advanced technologies and applications in the 5G era for this first time. The second one is the 1st Summit for China-Japan-ROK Entrepreneurs, aiming at promoting a strategic cooperation mechanism for enterprises in the three countries.

In addition, during the expo, the 2019 Northeast Asia Forum on Cooperation between Industries and Businesses was held to study and discuss regional connectivity, as well as the development of cross-border e-commerce platforms.

The expo yielded fruitful results with a trade volume of 728.67 million yuan and 93 contracted projects. President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter, expressing his hope that the expo would cement consensus, advance regional collaboration and make further achievements.

In today's global economic landscape, Northeast Asia, with a population of 1.7 billion, is one of the most dynamic and promising regions, accounting for one-fifth of the world's GDP. Consumption, imports and exports are growing rapidly, indicating a huge market potential.

Meanwhile, the northeast Asian countries have palpable differences and features in terms of resources, population, and industrial structure that can work for greater synergy.

Russia, the DPRK, and Mongolia are rich in natural resources; China's northeast region boasts a solid heavy industry base; in the aspect of applied technology, especially high-tech industry, Japan and South Korea have outstanding performance. This is the foundation for promoting regional cooperation in Northeast Asia.

On that basis, China is deepening its opening up to the outside world in all aspects and promoting its Belt and Road Initiative with Jilin as the northern window, helping to facilitate connectivity of Northeast Asia and expansion of the trade amid favorable new conditions.

Now, the entire vehicle import port of Changchun is functioning well; the construction of Huichun Comprehensive Bonded Zones is being accelerated; the China-Europe freight train from Changchun to Schwarzheide, in Germany, via Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, is operating in a stable way.

Meanwhile, by means of reform measures such as simplifying its approval procedures and building an online government platform, Changchun's business environment is being further optimized. Today, setting up a company here only requires three working days for the formalities to be completed.

The rapid development of Northeast Asia is fueled by the success of regional cooperation and multilateral mechanisms. We hope that the countries could avail themselves of the platform of China-Northeast Asia Expo to deepen cooperation and create a bright new future for Northeast Asia.

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