China and Kazakhstan held their 3rd local cooperation forum on Wednesday in Urumqi, capital city of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on the sidelines of the eighth China-Eurasia Expo, pledging to further tap the cooperation potential under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Themed "Good neighborliness cultivates win-win cooperation", the forum aims to promote cooperation among regions of the two countries in all dimensions, at different levels and in various fields.
This year's edition saw the two countries seeking to advance the alignment of Kazakhstan's Bright Road initiative with China's BRI, and continuously deepen pragmatic cooperation.
The event also witnessed the two parties pledging to comprehensively increase the scope and depth of cooperation in key industries and open up new areas of industrial cooperation by promoting the integration of supply chains and industrial chains in areas such as the production of agricultural products, mineral products, automobiles, energy equipment, as well as cross-border e-commerce.
Many provinces in China including northwest China's Shaanxi Province and east China's Shandong Province leveraged the platform to promote local products.
The forum also features a matchmaking event for companies from the two countries, drawing representatives from 16 regions and cities in Kazakhstan and the business community, as well as representatives from various Chinese provinces and top state-owned and private enterprises.
The eighth China-Eurasia Expo commenced on Wednesday and is expected to run until Sunday.
Themed "New Opportunities of Silk Road, New Vitality for Eurasian Cooperation," this year's edition has attracted over 1,900 participants from 50 countries, regions and international organizations, showcasing over 6,000 varieties of products.
3rd China-Kazakhstan local cooperation forum held in Xinjiang
E-commerce is helping farmers in the Aksu Prefecture in the landlocked region of Xinjiang in northwest China to overcome geographical obstacles and sell their produce to consumers across the country.
As the westernmost region of China bordering Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang is thousands of kilometers away from the eastern markets, a despairing distance for local fruit farmers.
"Our apples [used to] make it to domestic markets through traditional ways. The problem is that they have to be picked before they're ripe because of the long transport time," said Zhou Hu, owner of Aksu Qiguo E-commerce.
Zhou runs a company that sells fruits purchased from local farmers to online consumers in live-streaming shows.
"Previously, it might take five to seven days for the apples to arrive. Now with e-commerce, it takes two to three days," Zhou said.
As the business thrives, Zhou has helped raise the income of local farmers.
"We offer farmers 20 percent more of the total price than traditional buyers. That has a direct impact on farmers," Zhou said.
Seizing the opportunity brought about by e-commerce development, Rizwan Guli Erkin opened a store named Ga Beng Cui Dry Fruit Store on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to help her parents sell paper shell walnuts.
"The walnuts are grown by my parents. They only know how to grow them but don't know how to sell. So after college I've helped them with sales," she said.
Another one who has spotted this opportunity and returned home to build local businesses is Zheng Haozhe, CEO of the Future Village, an accommodation business in Onsu County of Aksu.
"I went to the U.S. when I was 14. I started from the ninth grade in high school. The U.S. has given me a very good education, but now, I feel very grateful to come back to my country and keep building my country, especially in a border area in the western area where things are not very developed," Zheng said.
E-commerce helps Xinjiang farmers reach markets across China
