China, ASEAN to Expand Economic Cooperation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, October 27, 2002

China, ASEAN to Expand Economic Cooperation

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The first ever Macro-economic Forumon China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) opened Saturday in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, with over 100 experts focusing on expanding economic cooperation between the two sides.

During the three-day forum, participants from ASEAN and China will discuss how to strengthen economic cooperation between China and the ten ASEAN Member States which include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, in order to be able to confront current challenges.

Worapot Manupipatpong, head of the ASEAN secretariat, attended the forum. He told that the 6th leaders meeting between the ASEAN and China and the first leaders meeting on the Greater Mekong Subre Gion Economic Cooperation Program will be held in Phnom Penh,capital of the Kingdom of Cambodia, at the end of next month.

Since 1995, the trade volume between China and ASEAN Member States has been increasing by an annual average rate of over 15 percent.

Last year, in spite of the downturn in the global economy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, both China and the ASEAN experienced a surge in trade volume, with bilateral trade volume hitting 41.6 billion US dollars, up 5.3 percent over the previous year.

At present, the ASEAN is China's 5th largest trade partner, while China is ASEAN's 6th largest.

The ASEAN is still regarded as an important source of overseas investment for China, though the amount of investment in China from ASEAN Member States has dropped due to the Asian financial crisis.

By the end of 2001, ASEAN investment projects in China numbered17,972, with contractual overseas investment of 53.5 billion US dollars, or 7.2 percent of China's total overseas investment.

The ASEAN's direct investment (FDI) projects in China numbered 1,239 in 2001 alone, a rise of 13.7 percent, with contractual overseas investment totaling 3.373 billion US dollars, up 9.6 percent year-on-year.

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