Pivotal port and host city Xiamen sees growth in throughput, Yuan Shenggao reports.

East China's Fujian province and its second-largest city Xiamen, which is currently hosting the ninth BRICS Summit, have witnessed increasing trade and personnel exchanges with other BRICS countries in recent years.

In the first half of the year, the province's trade with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africaand - the four other BRICS nations - grew by 67.7 percent to 49.4 billion yuan ($7.54 billion), according to statistics from the provincial commerce department. During the same period, Xiamen's trade with the countries reached 23 billion yuan, up 60 percent year-on-year, said Han Jingyi, vice-mayor of the city, in August.

Meanwhile, the countries established 10 new enterprises in Fujian in the first six months of the year, with investment totaling 200 million yuan, more than seven times the figure during the same period last year.

By June, 63 Chinese enterprises from Fujian have launched branches or offices in BRICS countries, with agreed investment reaching $480 million, according to government statistics.

Fuyao Group, a leading Chinese manufacturer of automotive and industrial glass based in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, invested $200 million in building its first overseas factory in Kaluga, Russia, in 2011. Ninety percent of the plant's employees are local workers. Cao Dewang, the group's board chairman, said: "We tapped the overseas market starting from Russia and then built plants in the United States and Europe, making us one of the largest automotive glass producers in the world."

Hu Jingpei, president of Xiamen Wanli Stone Stock, said the overseas development of the company epitomized the increasing trade exchanges between China and other BRICS countries. In 2003, the company built a stone-processing factory in South Africa. The revenue of the factory, which employs more than 60 local executives and sales personnel, is expected to reach $10 million soon, Hu said.

The company is also the sole Chinese dealer of India's Gem Granites and Brazil's Guidonni, both leading stone processing enterprises in their own countries. In 2012, Hu set up the Sunnyna Ballet Arts Center with its Russian trade partners and invited graduates from Russia's Vaganova Ballet Academy to work as teachers, making the center the most well-known ballet training facility in the province.

Currently, granite materials imported to China from other BRICS countries account for more than 70 percent of such goods passing through Xiamen.

Chen Tanxiang, general manager of Xiamen Nasda Nonwoven, turned his focus to the African continent in 2013, when his company hit a bottleneck because of excess capacity in the domestic market.

"The market potential in the developing world is huge," Chen said.

The company's sales have doubled after four years' development in South Africa.

"The BRICS Summit in Xiamen is a good opportunity for South African people to gain a better understanding of the city," Chen said.

More people from BRICS countries have chosen to stay in Xiamen or other cities in Fujian after studying there or starting their own businesses.

Iana Leonenko, who worked in the finance industry after graduating from Moscow State Linguistic University in Russia in 2014, quit her job in her home country and enrolled at Xiamen University's Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics two years ago.

She said it was her dream to study and work in China because her father, a businessman in Moscow, told her that the country is a land of opportunities.

"China's financial industry has grown rapidly. I believe there will be a lot of financial cooperation projects under the framework of the BRICS partnership. I hope I can stay in the country and help China and Russia understand each other better," said Leonenko, who started learning Chinese in high school.

Marcos Caldeira from Brazil said the summit will generate new opportunities for his stone business. He came to Xiamen to learn Chinese four years ago and then started his own business exporting stone materials to Brazil and other American countries.

"BRICS countries are playing an increasingly important role, which has boosted regional economic growth but also stimulated the global economy," said Caldeira, who is one of the biggest Brazilian stone traders in China and recently married a Chinese woman.

To provide quality services to summit participants, Xiamen has launched training sessions covering emergency rescue procedures and foreign languages, among others, for the 505,000 registered volunteers attending the event.

The China International Fair for Investment and Trade, one of the largest investment events in the world, will be held from Sept 18 to 21 in Xiamen following the summit. More than 500 delegations from 80 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in the fair.

It will have an exhibition area of 120,000 square meters. A 4,000-sq-m exhibition pavilion for China's time-honored brands will be set up at the event for the first time.

(China Daily 09/05/2017 page4)