CAEXPO to be held in October

By Huo Yan and Huang Feifei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-09-27 10:28

The 6th China-ASEAN Expo will be held this October in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The Expo, which is designed to help promote trade and cooperation between ASEAN countries and China, has been held annually over the last five years, attracting over 119,000 participants.

This year, according to Zheng Junjian, a senior CAEXPO official, French champagne company Henri Giraud will provide special drinks for the event, the first time that a European Union company has partnered with the China-ASEAN Expo.

"More and more European companies pay attentions to the CAEXPO. After finishing the cooperation of champagne Henri Giraud and CAEXPO, we will draw more companies to take participate in the CAEXPO," said a government spokesman from France's Marne Valley region.

According to a previous China Daily report, trade in 2008 between China and ASEAN countries totaled $231.1 billion, a 14 percent increase over 2007. A free trade agreement between China and ASEAN countries is likely to bolster those numbers when it goes into effect in 2010.