China hopes to improve agricultural trade with Phl

NANNING – The management of the Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area (GQFTPA) said they are hoping to boost agricultural trade with the Philippines.

GQFTPA administration committee-investment promotion department division chief Ding Qiwen said there is an existing trading of products, mostly in the agriculture and machineries sector, between China and the Philippines, and they are working toward improving this business relation.

Reporters covering the 9th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning in Guangxi province took a day tour of the GQFTPA located in Qinzhou City last Monday. The GQFTPA was established on May 29, 2008.

“Many of the agriculture and byproducts of agriculture can actually be imported (to) our Free Trade Port Area,” said Ding.

Grains, seafood and fruits are three of the products sold to China.

“There are already things being imported from the Philippines but not so much now. But we are trying to get more and more fruits from the Philippines,” he said.

China, meanwhile, is exporting machineries used in farming.

Guangxi is at the doorstep of the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) international corridor and considered as the largest sea gateway in the southwestern side of China. It is easily accessible from all directions by a matrix of railways, expressways and highways.

It is only 456 sea miles away from Hong Kong and the distance between Guangxi and Singapore is 1,338 sea miles.

Qinzhou is a booming port industrial city located in southwestern China.

Trade volume between Qinzhou and ASEAN countries has reportedly reached $1.09 billion as of 2011.