ON a production line in China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park in Qinzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, staff deftly pick small feathers from bird's nests. The nests are then placed in a mould, dried naturally, undergo thermal treatment and testing, and are finally labelled and packaged.
The nests are all imported from Malaysia. Over the past decade, with the help of the industrial park as well as the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park in Kuantan, consumers in China have been able to enjoy high-quality imports from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conveniently.
"We signed an agreement with the organising committee of Qinzhou Port Area in the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone in Nov 2020," said Lao Dayong, general manager of Sing Nest International Trading Co Ltd, one of the 12 companies in the industrial park qualified to process imported nests.
"With investment of 5 million Singapore dollars (US$3.7 million), we established a bird nest production line and a feather nest, a subcategory of bird's nests, processing line in China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park.
"Since we signed the contract the organising committee has been helping us build production lines and handling food production licences and traceable labels for bird's nests."
By the end of 2021 production lines had been put into trial operation, Lao said.
Guangxi Mayi Imported Goods Supply Chain Management Co Ltd is another beneficiary of the industrial park. The cross-border e-commerce company imports infant and maternity products, cosmetics, nutritional products, wines, durian and steaks, among other goods, straight from ASEAN member states.
To ensure the product quality of Musang King durian, one of Mayi's bestsellers, it established a 50,000-square-metre cold chain warehouse in Qinzhou Port Area in the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone and a central kitchen in China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park, where durian is processed and made into byproducts.
"We regularly send inspection teams to ASEAN member states to enrich our import channels and stabilise product quality and prices," said Sharon Yan, Mayi's executive deputy general manager.
China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park now has more than 25,000 companies registered, covering sectors such as agricultural products, bulk commodities, electric information, biopharmaceuticals, new materials and new energy. The value of signed contracts has surpassed 265.9 billion yuan (US$36.3 billion), the park said.
Wang Xiongchang, mayor of Qinzhou, said: "We aim to build waterways to further enhance the interconnectivity of Guangxi and ASEAN member states."
Last year, construction of the Pinglu Canal project, an important part of the new western land-sea corridor, was initiated. Once completed, a more convenient, cost-effective logistics channel facing ASEAN will be formed, Wang said.
"In the next step, Qinzhou will step up efforts to promote close collaboration alongside upstream and downstream industrial chains, so that China-ASEAN collaboration will be more globally competitive," he added.