On November 6, at the International Exhibition Center of the Fifth CIIE, the People's Government of Yangpu District of Shanghai and the Trade Promotion Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Laos held the signing ceremony of the MOU on Jointly Building a High-Level Economic and Trade Cooperation Platform. Under the witness of Mr. Mithouna LATSACHANH, the representative of the Consulate General of the Lao in Shanghai, Mr. Xu Guowu, the chairman of the China General Chamber of Commerce in Laos, Mr. Xue Kan, the head of Yangpu District, Shanghai, and Mr. Luo Zhisong, the chief economist of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce. Shi Fang, deputy head of Yangpu District, Shanghai, and Mr. Khouanchay IEMSOUTHI, commercial counselor of the Embassy of Lao in China, signed the MOU on behalf of China and Lao.

After the signing of the cooperation, both sides will deepen the collaboration of the CIIE, expand the effect of the CIIE, expand the scale of trade, encourage and support more high-quality agricultural products from Laos to enter Yangpu, enrich citizens' vegetable baskets and rice bags, meet the diverse needs of citizens for a high-quality life, and form the Yangpu Lao agricultural products import and distribution center serving Shanghai and radiating the "Yangtze River Delta." Strengthen digital trade cooperation and promote online new economy enterprises to empower traditional trade. Yangpu gives full play to the advantages of gathering leading Internet enterprises in the region to provide more and better digital, traffic, and platform resources for Lao's high-quality agricultural products sales in China. Integrate multiple forces to expand the cooperation model, encourage and promote more exchanges and mutual learning between Laos, business leaders of other neighboring RCEP member countries, and the business circles of Yangpu, Shanghai, and even the "Yangtze River Delta," promote the economic and trade cooperation between China and Laos.

Over the past five years, the CIIE has given full play to the role of the four major platforms of international procurement, investment promotion, people-to-people exchanges, and open cooperation, promoting the integration of China and the world market, industry integration and innovation, promoting the optimization of the business environment, attracting high-quality enterprises to enter the market, stimulating market vitality, enhancing development momentum and has won widespread praise at home and abroad. Laos is one of the countries that participated in the CIIE for five consecutive times. As a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, Laos has a good agricultural ecological foundation and development potential. Shanghai is promoting the construction of "five centers", with a leading position in the development of regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta, also Shanghai has strong market driving capacity.

Yangpu is the largest and most populous central urban area in Shanghai, with rich innovative resources, abundant emerging industries, active market economy, and broad open platform. It is determined to create business opportunities and seek common development with all friends. Yangpu District and the Trade Promotion Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Laos seized the opportunity of the fifth CIIE to expand the cooperation between both sides and enlarge the spillover effect of the CIIE.

Under the leadership of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government and the guidance of relevant municipal departments, Yangpu District actively responded to the national "One Belt One Road" initiative followed the Action Plan of the CPC and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party on Building a Community with a Shared Future between China and Laos, took the effective implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the opening of the whole China Laos railway line as an opportunity, and made full use of the characteristics of the industrial structure and advantageous resource endowments of both sides to comprehensively strengthen the partnership between Yangpu District and the Lao Department for the Promotion of Trade to build a high-level economic and trade cooperation platform jointly.

The implementation of RCEP further stimulated ASEAN countries' expectations of sharing the dividends of China's development and opening up and strengthening cooperation with China on the "One Belt One Road." ASEAN countries are China's largest trading partners. The in-depth cooperation between both sides will effectively promote regional connectivity, release the market potential after the integration of RCEP, add new momentum to promote regional development and prosperity and contribute new forces to the world economic recovery growth. The completion and opening of the whole China-Laos Railway provided good opportunities and convenient conditions for the successful signing of this MOU.

This signing will give full play to the function of the CIIE, create a high-level economic and trade cooperation platform, promote the high-quality development of trade, and amplify the spillover effect of the CIIE. This signing is Yangpu District's first foreign cooperation after the successful conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and another specific measure of Yangpu's innovative development to realize the construction of "four high urban areas."

The signing of the memorandum of cooperation points out the direction and principles for the specific cooperation between both sides in the future. In essence, Yangpu takes the initiative to serve Shanghai, and Shanghai takes the initiative to help China. It provides a new platform for Shanghai to build a central node of a unified national market, a strategic link between domestic and international, and a new practice for Shanghai to build a bridgehead to serve the "One Belt One Road". At the same time, it will also provide a "Yangpu Plan" for the in-depth implementation of the "One Belt One Road" initiative and RCEP in Southeast Asia, playing a leading role as a model.

In the future, Yangpu District will work with the Trade Promotion Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Laos to further negotiate and clarify specific cooperation matters, effectively deepening the development of high-quality trade. Both sides will actively play the "four functions" of the CIIE, make full use of social forces, strive to expand the space and channels of cooperation in the CIIE, expand the scale of trade, improve the quality of trade, and amplify the spillover effect of the CIIE. Give full play to the advantages of the digital economy and Laos' ecological agriculture of Yangpu online new economy enterprises, strengthen digital empowerment, and promote the integrated development of industries on both sides. Continue to enhance policy and academic exchanges, tap the potential of economic and trade cooperation under the RCEP framework, fully release the market potential after the integration of RCEP, and share the dividends of collaboration and development. (Photographer: Wang Weiqiu)