(chinadaily.com.cn)

The Yantai-ASEAN Import and Export Commodities Online Fair is held on July 17 in Yantai, Shandong province. [Photo/dzwww.com]

An online fair aiming to promote foreign trade between Yantai and countries from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was held on July 17, according to officials from Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province.

More than 100 representatives from ASEAN business associations, leading companies and over 100 foreign trade enterprises in Yantai participated in the conference via video links.

Officials said the participants conducted in-depth talks about developing food, e-commerce, logistics and pharmaceutical industries and also introduced their intended cooperation projects to each other.

The Yantai-ASEAN Import and Export Commodities Online Fair will further deepen the trade and investment between Yantai and ASEAN countries, and also promote imports and exports between the two sides.

In recent years, Yantai has seized the opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative and given full play to the Yantai Area of China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone to strengthen its trade with ASEAN countries, focusing on manufacturing and the real economy.

In 2019, imports and exports between Yantai and ASEAN totaled 35.97 billion yuan ($5.14 billion), up 9.1 percent.

Officials said that to date, Yantai has introduced 529 investment projects from ASEAN countries. Contractual foreign investment and actual use of foreign investment hit $3.26 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively.

From January to May this year, the trade volume between the two sides reached 14.52 billion yuan, an increase of 50.5 percent over the same period of last year, accounting for nearly one-sixth of the city's total imports and exports during the period.