Pho, Tom Yum Goong, Singapore Chili Crab and a variety of authentic Southeast Asian Cuisines & Culturse were brought to Guangzhou through the Southeast Asian Cuisine & Culture Festival held from April 30 to May 9 during the May Day holiday.

Southeast Asian cuisine has always been popular and is served in many local restaurants in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao region. Food, tourism and other cultural exchanges have also been important ties between the people of the Greater Bay Area and ASEAN countries.

Thailand received about 1.9 million Chinese tourists from Guangdong every year before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Natenapa Kongsri, Consul-General of the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Guangzhou. “As we are still under the travel restriction, people can not travel as freely between Thailand and the Greater Bay Area as before. Therefore, we bring our iconic Thai food through the Cuisine Festival and hope you won’t forget Thailand.”

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The close cultural relations also help further economic ties between the Greater Bay Area and ASEAN countries. “Our Malaysian food actually is quite popular in Guangdong and China. That's why we have exported so many Malaysian products especially our durian, snacks and white coffee to China,” said Beh Ching Chye, Consul General of Malaysia in Guangzhou.

Based on the statistics released by the Guangdong Bureau of Commerce, the province’s import and export volume reached 5.68 trillion yuan from January to October, 2020, taking up about one fourth of the national total volume. The trade volume between Guangdong and ASEAN countries exceeded 865.1 billion yuan during the same period.

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In addition, cooperation between the Greater Bay Area and ASEAN countries has been expanding into more business sectors in recent years.

“Both offices of the eastern economic corridor which is a mega project in Thailand and the Greater Bay Area have signed a MoU two years ago to establish cooperation in a lot of scopes including smart city, digital platforms and medical technology,” said Natenapa Kongsri, “we are also currently organizing a wide range of online meetings to bridge Thai companies with Guangdong in the fields of electric vehicles and digital economy.”

Singapore and Guangdong have been maintaining close cooperative relationships and launched two major cooperative projects which are the Guangzhou Knowledge City and the Shenzhen smart city initiative.

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The Guangzhou Knowledge City is a bright spot and saw positive growth last year despite the pandemic. Both sides are working very hard to leverage off strong economic recovery to how we can make better use of this platform, which is similar for the Shenzhen project. Our engagements and meetings have continued despite the pandemic,” said Loh Tuck Keat, Consul General of the Republic of Singapore in Guangzhou.

Loh Tuck Keat considers there is more scope to strengthen economic ties between the Greater Bay Area and ASEAN countries with the signing of the RCEP and also joint efforts to enhance the ASEAN-China Free trade agreement. “But at the same time, we also hope to strengthen the culture and people to people exchanges because for government to government relations, ultimately, it’s all about how it benefits the people.”

Author | Jasmine

Editor| Jerry