| The five-day 6th China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo closed with fruitful economic and trade cooperation, an official with the organizing comittee announced Saturday.
The Expo, held from Tuesday to Saturday in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, had been "pratical and effective", according to Chen Wu, Vice Co-chair and Secretary General of the China-ASEAN Expo Organizing Committee, and also Guangxi's Vice Governor.
As of 4 p.m. Saturday, total trade volume at the Expo hit 1.65 billion U.S. dollars, up 3.8 percent over last year's event, while 136 cross-border investment projects had been signed with investment up 1.19 percent from last year to 6.44 billion U.S. dollars, Chen said at the closing ceremony of the Expo.
Chinese enterprises reached 204 deals with total investment of 61.85 billion yuan, up 1.05 percent from a year ago, he said.
A total of 11 high-level forums were held on the sidelines of the expo, including the China-ASEAN Customs-Trade Cooperation Forum, the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit amd the China-ASEAN Summit Forum on Radio and Television.
The Expo this year also pushed forward the final preparations for the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area(FTA), which will be fully realized by January 1, 2010, in ways of on-site promotions and forum discussions, he said.
The China-ASEAN free trade area will be the world's largest with a combined population of 1.9 billion and the world's third largest in terms of trade volume.
The 7th expo will be held from Oct.20 to 24 next year in the permanent venue of Nanning with the theme of "the Free Trade Area and new opportunities", according to Chen.
The Expo next year would focus on the establishement of the FTA, introducing business opportunities in the newly-established area and further promote trade facilitation, he said.
China is currently ASEAN's fourth largest trading and investment partner, with its trade with ASEAN accounting for 10.6 percent of the association's total. Its investment in ASEAN member states soared by 125 percent year-on-year to reach 2.18 billion U.S. dollars in 2008.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam with a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers. |
