CGTN | 【视频】连接亚洲和世界：130多家参展商在新加坡举行的中国机电产品品牌展展示产品

Connecting Asia and the World: Over 130 exhibitors showcase their products at China's Machinery and Electronics show in Singapore

Some of the biggest Chinese enterprises gathered in Singapore for China's Machinery and Electronics Show last week. The exhibition was held alongside the first Conference on International Industrial Cooperation where over 500 experts and representatives from government agencies discussed a range of topics including how to leverage RCEP to strengthen the supply chain between China and the other member nations. CGTN's Miro Lu reports.

Looking to establish or strengthen their foothold in ASEAN following the grand reopening, over 130 Chinese exhibitors came out in full force at China's Machinery and Electronics Show in Singapore. Exhibitors ranged from companies dealing in household appliances to big name players like China State Construction Engineering Corporation and China Energy Engineering Group.

LIM JIN HUI Engineer China Energy Engineering Group Singapore Branch "These exhibitions not only allow us to explore the Singapore local market. There are a lot of other regions like even Middle East, even UK. So these are the countries potential markets that we managed to speak to a few investors and discuss more details on what their demands are in their overseas markets."

MIRO LU Singapore "Alongside the exhibition, conference goers also attended multiple panel discussions where green development, digital empowerment and supply chain restructuring were being discussed by experts. There is a sense of urgency to make up the time lost due to the pandemic. After three years of hiatus and many lessons learnt, Chinese industries are keen to play catch up under the RCEP framework and many believe that despite uncertainties ahead, economic and trade cooperation is still the way forward."

RCEP or Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is the world's largest free trade agreement. Since it came into effect a year ago, the pact has helped businesses by reducing export costs and simplifying the rules of investment. Take Chinese businesses for instance. Beijing's trade with RCEP signatories expanded 7.9 percent year on year to about 1.69 trillion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of 2022 alone.

LINDA YANG Global Partner Yingke Law Firm "I think they are very excited with RCEP because for the concerns for investors, the key issue is about the stable rules and regulations and policies of different countries as well as the openness and transparency of the laws and regulations of this country. So, under the rules of investment, rules of RCEP, everything is very clear."

Alice Chan from the RCEP International Centre adds that the trade pact, which covers a third of the world population, is the best example of an open, inclusive, and rules-based system.

CHAN NGA LAI Managing Director RCEP International Centre "After COVID, it is the first integrated organisation to showcase what is the best way of doing international trade and also with a very open minded business-driven kind of platform, so even the SMEs, the medium sized enterprises, they are able to participate."

The two-day conference and three-day show was organised by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic products along with the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.