State-of-the-art robots made by the Lung Cheong Group, a local Dongguan firm. The upcoming 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Fair will showcase such leading high-tech products.
Organizers from the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Fair are pinning much hope on the upcoming event to be able to play a big part in further expanding economic cooperation between the southern province and nations and regions along the Maritime Silk Road.
According to Liu Xiaojie, deputy director of the organizing committee of the fair, the event will offer a good platform and a golden opportunity for Guangdong to enhance Sino-foreign economic ties and strategic cooperation with the nations and regions along the ancient maritime trade route.
Insiders have forecast the total trade volume of agreements reached during the fair will surpass 100 billion yuan ($16. 34 billion).
"Guangdong province, which has become one of the country's economic powerhouses, should further diversify its world markets, instead of relying too much on the markets of developed countries and regions, and the province has a long history of foreign trade with the nations and regions along the ancient Maritime Silk Road," Liu said.
Liu said agreements on a number of trade, tourism and culture projects are expected during the fair to help promote economic cooperation and cultural links between Guangdong and the nations along the Maritime Silk Road.
Wu Jun, secretary-general of the organizing committee, said Guangdong has the historic, geographic, trading and cultural advantages to organize the first International Fair of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
"Guangdong, which was an important starting point for the ancient maritime trade route, is the right place to organize such an international fair," Wu said.
"The countries and regions along the Maritime Silk Road, particularly the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, are usually prime destinations for Guangdong products."
The province, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, has established very close economic and trade ties with the nations and regions along the ancient trade route since ancient dynasties, as Guangzhou, the provincial capital used to be the only trade port open to the outside world in those days, Wu said.
The province has also been an important window of China's reform and opening drive and an economic engine for the past three decades.
Guangdong, which has the country's longest coastline, has also established many international sea routes with the rest of the world, Wu said.
The province now has five registered 100-million-ton deep-water ports. The cargo handling capacity of Yantian Port in the Shenzhen special economic zone reached 11.8 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2013, the highest on the mainland and fourth highest in the world.
"Last year, the cargo handling capacity of Guangdong ports hit 1.5 billion tons," Wu said.