Foreign diplomats explore opportunities for cooperation with China in Hainan

Diplomats from 15 countries visited China's southern island province of Hainan to explore new opportunities for cooperation in the burgeoning free trade port.

A total of 25 ambassadors, consuls general and envoys from countries including Madagascar, Bulgaria, Finland, Cambodia, Germany and Indonesia joined the tour, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

These diplomats visited key parks in the Hainan Free Trade Port, such as an international aerospace city, a pilot zone for international medical tourism and an international education innovation pilot zone.

Free trade port construction has been in full swing this year as the tropical island province further deepens reform and opening up and makes institutional innovations to align with top international standards.

Having gained a deeper understanding of the Hainan Free Trade Port, many diplomats expressed their hope to deepen mutual exchanges and cooperation with China to achieve win-win development.

"Belarus is a famous supplier of high quality food products to China, be it meat -- all sorts of meat, beef, poultry and dairy products. That's something where we could cooperate [on] here," said Andrei Popov, consul general of Belarus in Guangzhou.

"We are all ready to strengthen collaboration and coordination with the Hainan government to cooperate and also to promote bilateral relationship and economy," Chhum Bunthan, consul general of Cambodia in Haikou.

Since the establishment of the Free Trade Port, Hainan has been developing four leading industries: tourism, modern services, high-tech industries, and tropical agriculture. Efforts have also been made to accelerate the development of future sectors such as the seed industry, deep-sea industry, and aerospace.

Currently, Hainan is promoting innovation in international education by allowing top overseas universities specializing in science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine to establish campuses in Hainan. Education programs established by China and foreign countries are also being launched in the island province.

"I'm very proud and honored to meet students from Cote d 'Ivoire in China, because there is an educational cooperation agreement between Cote d 'Ivoire and China," said Gomun Kouya Bertin, counselor of the Embassy of Cote d'Ivoire in China.

Foreign diplomats explore opportunities for cooperation with China in Hainan

Enterprises in China's warehouse storage industry still holds high expectation for business growth after the sector registered a slight drop in demand in April following a strong rebound in March according to the data released by China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing Tuesday.

April's warehouse storage index, the data tracking the sector's development, came in at 49 for April, dropping 3.6 percentage points compared with last month, indicating that the warehouse storage market is stilling absorbing the previous huge demand and as a result, commodity turnover efficiency slowed down and the demand for April was relatively weak.

Despite decreased demand, for April, the index measuring entrepreneurs' expectation for future operational activities stood at 56.2, rising 2.7 percentage points month over month, surpassing the expansionary threshold of 50 and suggesting rising expectation of business operators.

"With concentrated release of demand in March, the mobility of the warehouse and the activity of companies to stockpile raw materials has weakened to some extent. But as the business evolves, the operation of warehousing companies is steadily recovering," said Liu Yuhang, director of China Logistics Information Center.

Boosted by China's extensive implementation of its equipment renewals and consumer goods trade-in policies, new warehouse orders for nonferrous metals saw a noticeable increase in April, the data also showed.

Expectation remains strong for China's warehouse storage industry despite declining demand