(Photo from Nantong Foreign Affairs Office)

Nantong held a symposium on April 7 to support local companies in achieving better development under the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism.

Representatives from 50 Nantong-based enterprises exchanged ideas with officers from consulate generals of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia in Shanghai at the meeting. The meeting also included an introduction of the business environment and investment policies of the three countries.

In recent years, Nantong has continued to improve mutual trust and people-to-people exchange under the LMC mechanism, launched by China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in March 2016 as a sub-regional cooperation platform.

The city's higher education institutions, including Nantong Vocational University and Nantong College of Science and Technology, have been carrying out educational projects that recruit and train students from the five LMC countries.

In addition, the first freight train from the Yangtze River Delta to ASEAN departed from Hai'an in Nantong on May 27, 2020, opening up a new logistics channel for economic and trade partnership between the two regions.

In 2022, Nantong's foreign trade with the five LMC countries reached 21.19 billion yuan. The Nantong Chamber of Commerce has also opened branches in Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Currently, more than 3,000 people from the city are engaged in business development in LMC countries, covering garment, textile, footwear production and processing, as well as trade, hotels and construction.