KATHMANDU: The South and Southeast Asia Commodity Expo and Investment Fair (SSACEIF) 2021 is going to be held in Yunnan Province of China at the end of August.

Under the theme "New Opportunities for New Development", the expo will have the participation of exhibitors and participants from different South and Southeast countries.

The event, both online and offline, will be held from August 25 to 29 in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.

SSACEIF is a provincial level event, which is held in the odd years, focusing on improving China and Southeast Asia countries business relationship and cooperation.

SSACEIF will cover an exhibition area of 64,000 square meters at the Kunming Guanshang International Convention and Exhibition Center in Kunming, where most of the 3,000 standard booths will be physically set up.

According to Yunnan Provincial Overseas Representative Office in Kathmandu, known as ORO Nepal Office, this expo opens up new opportunities for the Nepali business community.

"Nepali entrepreneurs can participate and showcase their products or projects for free of cost. There will be a separate web page for each company with their product or project brief along with photos and cooperation intentions," according to ORO Nepal Office.

It further informed that the expo this year will have a more convenient operation mode for exhibitors. Free market places will be offered to the exhibitors for goods displaying, custom clearance and online business talks.

"Everyone can register online by themselves through the official website www.csa-expo.com, and ORO will review your company’s profile from backstage and recommend your company to different booths," a press statement issued by the organizer quoted Lingcheng Wu, Director at ORO Nepal and Bhutan Office, as saying.

Although the Nepali exhibitors can only participate in the fair online, their product samples can be sent to Kunming and exhibited via an agent, he further explained.

Since the establishment in 2015, ORO Nepal has linked Nepali and Chinese enterprises to cooperate in the sectors of energy, hospitality, floriculture, agriculture and more.

Besides the regular expo, this year, the event also has different thematic exhibitions like Asia Link, Overseas window of Yunnan Province, Overseas Investment Cooperation, Trade in Services, Market Purchasing Trade, Border Trade and On-Line Matchmaking Event of Yunnan Province among others.

"The offline forums and meetings will be carried out in accordance with the actual epidemic control situation," the event organizer informed.

Similarly, the different forums will be held during the five-day fair including the 4th China-Southeast Asia Business Forum, the 3rd China-South Asia Cooperation Forum, the 15th China-South Asia Business Forum, the 8th China-South and Southeast Asia Think-Tank Forum among others.

The event in Yunnan, China's major gateway to Southeast Asia and South Asia, highlights China's closer trade ties and cooperation with the region.

Last December, Yunnan hosted China South Asia Expo, however, it was limited to online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The expo successfully invited more than 10,000 exhibitors and buyers, while the contract amount reached 5.19 billion USD within the expo week.