The Beijing municipality held a foreign-trade-themed online fair on Wednesday to facilitate trade with South and Southeast Asian countries and boost regional economic cooperation.

The six-day event will promote Beijing's high-quality products to the region, including pandemic prevention supplies, healthcare goods, new- and high-tech products, and smart equipment, as well as new energy and lifestyle products.

At the opening ceremony on June 2, Wu Xiangyang, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, reaffirmed Beijing's opening-up policy and its determination to promote practical cooperation and seek mutual benefit with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In November 2020, 15 Asia-Pacific countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's biggest trade pact. The agreement helped push regional economic cooperation to a new level despite the current challenges facing global trade.

Trade between Beijing and participating RCEP countries promises broad prospects, said Wu, adding that Beijing's foreign trade with 14 RCEP countries reached 540.1 billion yuan in 2020. This includes 150.09 billion yuan in exports and 390.01 billion yuan in imports, accounting for one-third and one-fifth of the city's total amount last year, respectively.

Following China's ratification of the RCEP agreement on April 15, Beijing is also working to carry out technical training to make sure it can fulfill its obligations accordingly when the agreement comes into effect. The city has arranged two online training sessions for local government bodies and companies, helping them to become familiar with the relevant rules and regulations and to further explore opportunities for development amid market competition.

The city's commerce bureau and the Beijing branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) also signed an agreement on a cross-border matchmaking framework. According to the deal, the ICBC Beijing branch will continue to redouble its financial support and provide all-around financial services to foreign trade enterprises in the city.

Several memoranda agreements were also signed by companies in Beijing and abroad via video links during the opening ceremony.

An online platform for the fair was launched on May 26. Since then, over 120 local companies and more than 100 companies in South and Southeast Asia have participated in the virtual exhibition.

Other promotional activities will be held during the six-day event to facilitate trade between Beijing and participating RCEP countries and boost connectivity between the domestic and global markets. This cooperation hopes to contribute to China's "dual circulation" development paradigm.

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