Third South Asian Commodity Fair in Kunming:

Promoting Sri Lanka-China trade ties

On June 6, 2010, the 3rd South Asian Countries Commodity Fair (SACC) was officially inaugurated at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Kunming, the city of ‘Eternal Spring’.

The fair was opened by Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Wang Qishan, in the presence of Chinese Deputy Commerce Minister and leading officials of the Yunnan

Province CCPIT and related agencies. Finance and Planning Deputy Minister and Senior Advisor to President Dr Sarath Amunugama graced the occasion together with other Governmental delegations from South Asian countries as well as their Ministers of International Trade, Ambassadors and Commercial Counsellors from South Asia.

The third Fair was held alongside the 18th Kunming imports and exports fair and covered an area of 5,000 square metres with 380 standard booths, increased from 300 last year promoting services for cross-border trade, investment and economic and technological cooperation from the South Asian Countries. The fair was jointly hosted by the Chinese Commerce Ministry, seven of China’s Provincial Governments - Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Tibet, Chongqing and Chengdu and the Trade Ministries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The enthusiasm for participation among the Sri Lankan exporters was visible beyond doubt, as Sri Lanka participated with a record number of participants totalling more than 80 enterprises/companies displaying their products ranging from tea, coir products, gems and jewellery, spices and rubber based products, ayurvedic products, handicrafts and light industrial products such as cables and solar power equipment at the Sri Lanka pavilion, attracting a whole host of opportunities. The success of participation at previous two events encouraged Sri Lanka to be the largest Exhibitor this time bringing in much admiration from the Chinese Government Officials for the optimism showed by the Sri Lanka exporters to step into the Chinese Market.

Sri Lanka exports to China has increased from 34 Million USD in 2006 to 70 million USD in 2009.

Export opportunities

For Sri Lanka this event was also timely for exploring export opportunities in the context of the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA). It was evident that Sri Lanka exhibitors reaped many positive responses during the 3rd South Asia Trade Fair. The Embassy of Sri Lanka together with the Sri Lanka Tourism and Export Development Board had Information Booths at the venue in which publicity material of Sri Lanka were displayed and distributed to the business visitors. Besides this, the samples of Sri Lanka tea products collected from member-exporters were also attractively displayed and the opportunity was given for visitors to taste the distinct flavour of ‘Ceylon Tea’.

China and South Asian Countries have been friendly neighbours and cooperated closely on many international and regional affairs for decades, with the dimension of economic and trade cooperation expanding and bilateral trade volume is growing rapidly. China is now determined to boost imports from South Asia, and during the past few years have been taking series of measures to improve trade with the South Asian countries, including cutting tariffs, aiding import and export, and encouraging imports from South Asian countries. Holding such a trade fair dedicated to South Asian Products was one such important measure taken by China to promote fruitful trade and economic cooperation between China and South Asian countries and to expand China’s imports from South Asian countries.

At a time both Chinese and South Asian economies were being hit by the global financial crisis, which featured plunging exports, deceleration of economic growth and factory closure, the trade fair is Chinese government’s contribution to South Asia providing means to import more from South Asian nations and create opportunity for these countries to overcome the negative effects of the financial crisis.

Free exhibition facilities

Accordingly the statistics of Chinese Commerce Ministry, trade between China and South Asia has developed vigorously in the last few years, with two-way trade volume jumping to 66 billion US dollars last year which stood at mere 5.2 billion USD in year 2000. The SACC Fair also provided an economic cooperation platform which links the traders from South Asian Countries and ASEAN countries to the traders from China.

To encourage large number of Small and Medium Scale enterprises from South Asia, the fair organisers provided participants with free exhibition facilities and meet all transportation costs within China, as well as assisting with customs clearance and product promotion.

Under these circumstances, this China Export and Import Fair, popularly called Kunming Fair is the window of opportunity created by the Yunnan Province to reach out South and South-East Asia. The origins of the fair dates back to June 1993. It attracts about 5,000 overseas businesspersons from around 40 countries.

To be continued