Cambodia is Country of Honour at 5th CAEXPO

By Sonia K in Nanning

Exhibitors and members of the media waiting for their passes to be issued. - YUSRIN JUNAIDI	Decorative artworks outside the venue of the expo. - SONIA K
A security personnel is seen patrolling outside the venue. - YUSRIN JUNAIDI	The pavillion of the Cities of Charm. - YUSRIN JUNAIDI

Cambodia will be this year's Country of Honour for the 5th China-Asean Exposition (CAEXPO). This mechanism was introduced last year during the 4th CAEXPO, where Brunei Darussalam was the first country to be showcased.

For each expo, an Asean country will act as the CAEXPO Country of Honour, whose state leader is invited to the event with the delegation to ensure that each CAEXPO will have the attendance of Asean state leaders, thus to maintain CAEXPO's influences in political and diplomatic arenas.

According to a consensus reached by CAEXPO Co-organisers in China and the 10 Asean countries, one Asean country is invited to be the Country of Honour in accordance with the English alphabetical order.

This year, programmes tailored for Cambodia will be arranged, including Cambodia-China Trade and Investment Promotion Conference and art performances by Cambodian art groups and such.

In addition to that, Brunei has chosen Bandar Seri Begawan as its City of Charm for the CAEXPO. Introduced during the second CAEXPO, the Pavillion of Cities of Charm was introduced to help enrich China's cooperation with Asean and to extend the current country-to-country cooperation.

China and the 10 Asean countries have to select one of its cities as their own City of Charm for the year, to comprehensively exhibit its development and business opportunities in trade, investment, science and technology, culture and tourism.

This year's chosen cities are Suzhou (China), Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Bandung (Indonesia), Vientiane (Lao PDR), Cyberjaya (Malaysia), Yatanabon (Myanmar), City of Singapore, Phuket (Thailand) and Hue (Viet Nam).