Sprouting Forestry Cooperation in CAEXPO

Written by Lin Han and Tang Qi / Translated by Xie Zongming

China and ASEAN have abundant forest resources and boast unique characteristics in forestry industrial structures, being strongly complementary to each other. Forestry cooperation has irreplaceable implications in promoting sustainable social development, securing eco-system, and facilitating environmental well-being. China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO), as a crucial platform for cooperation between China and ASEAN, has brought many new opportunities for the two sides to facilitate forestry cooperation and agglomeration. With Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) entering into force, CAEXPO has gained broader a market for forestry cooperation, leaving a “vast green forest” in business to be developed.

The forest of China-ASEAN cooperation takes root in CAEXPO 

If CAEXPO was a nourishing field for China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, the forestry industry cooperation between the two is a plant fully grown from its nutrition. From the 2010 China-ASEAN Timber & Wood Products Expo being an independent exhibition held at a different time from CAEXPO to today’s Forestry Exhibition that has established its brand awareness, CAEXPO now has a practical platform and effective means to facilitate China-ASEAN forestry cooperation.

In 2011, the 8th CAEXPO set environmental protection as one of the key themes and held several high-level forums and international meetings. Forestry cooperation, being an important part in environmental protection, has gradually become the major area of China-ASEAN cooperation. An advocate of the CAEXPO Secretariat said, “CAEXPO is an important platform for opening up and cooperation between China and ASEAN. Therefore, it will further deepen and broaden the two sides’ cooperation in forestry and bring more opportunities. We will also welcome new friends to join the community of this forestry exhibition, sharing the development opportunities and

bright future.”

Why does forestry get the attention from both sides? In 2017, Peng Youdong, the then Deputy Director of the State Forestry Administration, said during the China-ASEAN Forestry Cooperation Promotion Meeting that “The areas of cooperation in forestry between the two sides keep expanding, with more investment flowing to the industry. Trade in forest products is growing, and technological cooperation and personnel exchanges become frequent. All these have facilitated the regional forestry development.” The speech shows that forestry cooperation not only represents both sides’ common interests but also will bring long-term benefits for future China-ASEAN cooperation.

From 2010 to 2020, the total trade value of forest products between the two sides is increasing steadily from US$ 23.53 to 40.27 billion, a 71.2% growth. Meanwhile, China-ASEAN forestry development skyrockets as China remains the world’s largest 

producer, trader, and consumer of forest products. 

Guangxi, the venue of CAEXPO, has incomparable advantages in forestry as well. By 2020, the forest coverage of Guangxi reached 62.5%, ranking 3rd in China, and the value of total output reached 752.1 billion yuan. At the 2019 Forestry Exhibition, an advocate of the National Forest and Grassland Administration of China said, “Guangxi is an important window for China’s opening-up to and cooperation with ASEAN, setting a good example for forestry cooperation between the two sides.”

As eco-conservation is becoming a consensus, the ecological, economic, and social benefits of forestry start to stand out. With the facilitation of CAEXPO, forestry cooperation between China and ASEAN countries has gradually transformed from the mono-structured timber import and export to more in-depth and broader cooperation, 

including forestry as a solution to climate change, forest resource protection and utilization, forestry and trade, wildlife conservation, and forest disaster joint prevention and control.

All-round cultivation by CAEXPO

Benefiting from CAEXPO’s high-quality platform, China-ASEAN forestry cooperation is deepening in multiple areas. As one of the important and special exhibitions under the CAEXPO Framework, the Forestry Exhibition has now covered all industry chains in China’s and ASEAN’s forestry and concentratedly exhibited the woodworking machinery, forestry equipment, solid wood furniture, rosewood furniture, etc, becoming a crucial platform for China-ASEAN forestry cooperation.

The 2021 Forest Exhibition first adopted the “physical exhibition + Online CAEXPO” model, holding the Exhibition both online and on site. The China-ASEAN Forestry Industrial Park and products of forestry brands showed up at the Exhibition, as well as advanced forestry technologies, forestry tech cooperation programs, customized furniture, composite lumber, felling & tree planting machinery, etc. Looking back at the previous exhibitions, there were also tree seedlings, ornamental flowers, endangered flowers, gardening equipment, and a series of costumer’s favorites like wild mushrooms, wild bees, wild chicken, forest-related health and wellness services, old town medical wellness services, forest parks, natural reserves, forest tourism products, etc.

In addition, the Exhibition keeps promoting the integrative development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries of forestry and constructing a green forestry system with a reasonable industry layout, complete industry chain, and high added value, in order to boost the mutually-benefiting co-existence between environmental protection and industrial development and to improve the depth and broadness of China-ASEAN forestry cooperation.

It is worth mentioning that the Exhibition, in pursuit of deepening the exchange and cooperation of the forestry sector and practically improving the exhibition outcome, has held multiple series of professional forums and events, including the International Forest Products Trade Forum, International Wood Panel and Furniture Conference, and Guangxi “Two Mountains” Development Forum, to help the enterprises learn about the latest trend of development in the industry and to provide a platform for business opportunities. The Exhibition also has the China-ASEAN Forestry Equipment Purchasing Matchmaking Conference and Forest Products Purchasing Matchmaking Conference for trade and investment facilitation, as well as the China-ASEAN International Wood Culture Forum which allows participants to experience carpentry DIYs to learn about the wood culture.

Let forestry cooperation prosperous with the platform

CAEXPO provides a platform for China-ASEAN forestry cooperation to flex its advantages and, indeed, the two sides have used the various opportunities brought by the platform to harvest fruitful results in such cooperation.

With CAEXPO, the timber and wood products from ASEAN countries, such as the plywood and wood of ships from Indonesia and rosewood and teakwood from Vietnam and Thailand, enrich the wood processing and manufacturing market of China, while Chinese woodworking machinery and planting technology also spread in the ASEAN countries, improving their forestry mechanization.

In the furniture industry, with the CAEXPO as a window, more and more quality wood furniture with Lao characteristics enter the Chinese market and soon get popular among the local consumers, with the turnover increasing year by year. Since the 6th CAEXPO, Laos has participated in the CAEXPO for 12 consecutive years and used 1,606 booths in total. A total of 705 Lao companies have participated in the CAEXPO as exhibitors to show their products, among which wood furniture is the favorite of Chinese customers. 

At the 16th China-ASEAN Signing Ceremony for cooperation projects, the Fortune Global 500 companies and world-known manufacturers like Linde Group of Germany, Sinar Mas Group of Indonesia, and Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Ltd., are satisfied with the advantages of Guangxi’s forestry and the huge opportunity behind China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone, for which they signed cooperation projects with a total investment of over 20 billion yuan.

In the future, trade in the forestry sector may see a new record with the momentum brought by RCEP. Meanwhile, CAEXPO will further enhance its function as a platform to facilitate China-ASEAN forestry cooperation to form a comprehensive, multisectoral, and multi-layered cooperation pattern.