South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has become a forefront and an open window for China’s cooperation with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“By holding the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and business and investment seminars， Guangxi is becoming an international Channel to link multi areas and a cooperation platform，” said Lan Tianli， Vice Chairman of Guangxi， at a briefing on August 10.

In recent years， the multi-field cooperation between Guangxi and the ASEAN has been growing. The first state-level industrial park jointly built by China and Malaysia in Qinzhou， to which the two sides attach much attention， has settled in Guangxi. Additionally， the development of a sister Guandan Industrial Park has also been contracted. Meanwhile， the construction of the Sino-Vietnam economic zone， Sino-Indonesia economic zone and other big projects are also speeding up.

In the first half of this year， the trade between Guangxi and the ASEAN rose 20.9 percent. Guangxi’s total volume of foreign trade climbed 28 percent， 20 percent higher than the average growth of China’s foreign trade in the same period.

The forthcoming 9th China-ASEAN Expo will be held in Nanning， the capital of Guangxi， during September 21-25 this year.

According to Lan， the preparation work is going smoothly. Domestic and foreign enterprises are actively applying for the expo and even the number of exhibition booths applied for exceeds that in the plan. Six countries (Indonesia， Laos， Malaysia， Thailand， Myanmar， Vietnam) of the ASEAN will have their national pavilions at the expo. Meanwhile， over 1，100 purchasers from the ASEAN are applying to attend the expo.

Five exhibition pavilions will be highlighted at the 9th CAEXPO， namely， the Pavilion of Commodity Trade， the Pavilion of Investment Cooperation， the Pavilion of Advanced Technology， the Pavilion of Trade in Services and the Pavilion of Cities of Charm.

According to Yu Ping， Vice Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT)， the Sino- ASEAN Commodities Exchange Center will open during the 9th Business and Investment Summit.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between China and ASEAN， in which they agreed to launch the building of ChinaASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) and complete the process by 2010. Over the past ten years， both of China and the ASEAN have seen great achievements in bilateral economic cooperation and the CAFTA was established in January 2010. Since， the two sides have enjoyed significant reduction in tariff， which has lent a strong impetus to the fast growth of bilateral trade.

With a population of 1.9 billion， CAFTA is the world’s third largest FTA in terms of trade volume， following the North American FTA and the European FTA.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that China has become the first trading partner of the ASEAN for three consecutive years. And the ASEAN has taken the place of Japan to become China’s third largest trading partner， fourth largest export destination and third largest import source.

Two-way investment also keeps expanding in recent years despite the ongoing global financial crisis. According to Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng， Chinese companies invested 1.49 billion U.S. dollars in ASEAN countries in the first half of this year， registering a yearon-year increase of 34.3 percent. Meanwhile， the ASEAN’s investment in China rose 27.5 percent from a year earlier to 4.55 billion U.S. dollars in the January-June period， Xinhua reported.