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

While floodwaters began to recede across parts of Bangkok on Wednesday, thousands of residents in the capital's low-lying suburbs remained marooned, grappling with severe disruptions to electricity, clean water, and essential services in neighborhoods accessible only by boat.

A severe nationwide flooding swept through 42 Thai provinces between Sept 16 and 28, impacting 1.8 million people and leaving at least 8 people dead, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.

Officials reported that 28 provinces, primarily across Thailand's central, northern, eastern, and northeastern regions, remain affected by the disaster.

In the Lat Krabang district on Bangkok's eastern edge, just kilometers from the Suvarnabhumi Airport, streets remain submerged deep enough to swallow cars.

For the tens of thousands of people living there, the danger is not the rising water, but the grueling daily struggle to survive.

"It's devastating. Nobody can make a living. I have no money right now; all I have left is myself," said Mu Boonpitaksorn, a local resident.

With roads submerged and utility lines cut, small boats have become the communities' only connection to the outside world, delivering food, drinking water and medicine while serving as a crucial lifeline for evacuations.

"They are losing hope. That's what I think. This is one of the largest disaster area for the moment. People with disability, elderly people, family with younger children, it's much difficult for them to stay on into the community as they used to," said Weerasak Kowsurat, secretary general of the Friends in Need (of "PA") Volunteers Foundation.

Although temporary shelters have been established across the capital to offer safety, food, and dry ground to the displaced, evacuees face the reality of walking away from everything they could not carry.

"It's all gone. I have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Fridge, washing machine, fan, air conditioner… nothing left at all. Inside my home is all mud. It's too much, it's beyond despair," said Sumontha Huanarvorn, an evacuee.

Even as Bangkok gradually dries out, the floodwaters continue to separate families from their homes, belongings, and routines, leaving residents waiting desperately for roads to reappear, and hoping they will eventually lead back to the life they knew before the deluge.

Bangkok suburbs endure daily struggle as floodwaters linger