This aerial photo taken on September 17, 2022 shows a freight train departing from Qinzhou Port in Qinzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Photo: Xinhua

South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday sent out its first business delegation in nearly three years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, in a bid to get some overseas orders.

The delegation will visit a number of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. The tour will last for 10 days and there will be over 20 business and commercial events, according to media reports on Friday.

Guangxi has deep commercial ties with ASEAN countries.

ASEAN markets accounted for 47.6 percent of the foreign trade value for Guangxi in 2021, up from 40.9 percent in 2012, the Xinhua News Agency reported in August. ASEAN has been Guangxi's top trading partner for 22 consecutive years.

The delegation will pay a visit to Sihanoukville in Cambodia, the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park and Port of Singapore to look for tie-ups related to upgrading in foreign trade, as well as promoting sea links between the province's Beibu Gulf Port and other ASEAN ports.

Guangxi became the latest region to launch an overseas tour seeking business, after Northeast China's Jilin Province sent a delegation to South Korea and Northwest China's Xinjiang sent a delegation to Central Asian countries in December.

These were preceded by earlier efforts by East China provinces such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu to find orders overseas.

Bai Ming, deputy director of the international market research institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Friday that the efforts by Guangxi, Jilin and Xinjiang to forge deals in markets where their traditional business ties are deep reflect a practical approach.

Bai noted that as China resumes international travel in the coming months, after the introduction of new COVID-19 response measures that downgrade the infectious disease from Class A to Class B management, these government-backed business tours may be the last of their kind as businessmen will soon be able to travel on their own and according to their needs in a more flexible and timely fashion.

Global Times