13rd China-ASEAN Expo to open in S China

NANNING - The 13rd China-ASEAN Expo, slated for Sept 23-26, will be held in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, local authorities announced Wednesday.

The expo will highlight "jointly building the 21st-century maritime silk road and closer China-ASEAN community of common destiny," said Wang Lei, secretary-general of the expo during a conference of senior officials from China and ASEAN.

Enterprises from around the world will participate in the expo, with investors and buyers holding dialogs with entrepreneurs from China and ASEAN on economic and trade cooperation.

Vietnam will be the country of honor this year, apart from holding the chair, it will welcome a group of Chinese companies and hold exhibitions from June 16 to 18, 2016 in Vietnam.

Initiated in 2004, the expo is an important platform to promote bilateral trade and relationships between China and ASEAN.

This year marks the first year of the establishment of the ASEAN community, which is the first cross-nation union in East Asia and is expected to lead the region to a new stage of integration and growth.

The community will bring China-ASEAN cooperation closer as China has been the ASEAN's largest trade partner, and ASEAN has been China's third largest partner, since 2010.

Mutual trade volume was nearly $450 billion in 2015, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Founded in 1967 in Thailand, ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.