Vice Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang AutonomousRegion Yang Jinbai said having been held successfully for 15 straight years,CAEXPO has become an international event with considerable influence inpromoting economic ties between China and the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN).

It provides a platform for dialogues amongleaders and ministers of ASEAN and China to enhance cooperation between the twosides and help build a sustainable ASEAN Community and China.

Yang said in the 15 previous editions, CAEXPOattracted a total 746,000 entrepreneurs, helping with the implementation ofmajor projects like the China-Malaysia Twin Parks and the China-IndonesiaEconomic and Trade Cooperation Zone, along with the upgrade of the ASEAN-ChinaFree Trade Area.

So far, more than 200 meetings and forums on morethan 40 fields have been organised as part of CAEXPO, setting up an array ofcooperation mechanisms and helping turn Guangxi into a gateway to ASEAN.

This year’s event will cover 134,000 sq.m., up10,000 sq.m. from the last expo, with additional booths for the media. It willfocus on trade, investment, production capacity, digital economy, science andtechnology, finance, e-commerce and tourism.

ASEAN countries will showcase products in 1,500booths while non-ASEAN nations have 246 booths.

A total of 33 forums and meetings within theexpo will provide information in various spheres, supply services for connectingcommercial and industrial projects and create business opportunities for the 10ASEAN members and China.

For the first time, CAEXPO Global events willtake place and a CAEXPO Blue Book will be published to provide the latestinformation about bilateral economic and trade partnerships.

With such a scale, the CAEXPO and CABIS 2019 arebelieved to boost ASEAN-China cooperation.

ASEAN and China have recorded sustainable growthin trade. For 10 consecutive years, China has been the largest trade partner ofASEAN, which in turn became the second biggest trade partner of China for thefirst time in the first half of 2019.

Between January and June, bilateral tradereached 291.85 billion USD, up 4.2 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, bilateral investment value hit 205.71billion USD as of the end of 2018, rising 22-fold in 15 years, making ASEAN aleading investment destination of Chinese enterprises./. VNA