With the objective of pursuing regional free trade and enhancing
political mutual trust China and ASEAN leaders are gathering in
Nanning, capital of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, for a
high-level summit meeting on Monday.
Chinese experts on international affairs believe the summit
marking the 15th China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations will push
the strategic partnership to a new level.
Six of the 10 ASEAN country leaders had already flown to the
city at press time for the summit including the prime ministers of
Cambodian, Singapore, the Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and president of
the Philippines. Leaders of the remaining ASEAN members were
expected to arrive in Nanning late Sunday or Monday.
This is the first time Chinese leaders and the ten ASEAN member
countries have convened in China. They're widely expected to chart
a future direction for China-ASEAN relations in the coming
years.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will hold bilateral meetings with
ASEAN leaders respectively on the sidelines of the summit. The
third China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment
Summit are to kick off on Tuesday.
By 1991 China had established diplomatic ties with all members
of ASEAN. It became ASEAN 's all-around dialogue-partnership
country in 1996. Currently China and ASEAN are committed to
cementing the "strategic partnership oriented to peace and
prosperity".
According to Chinese statistics China-ASEAN bilateral trade grew
20 percent annually over the past 15 years and topped US$130
billion last year-15 times the figure of 1991. China is now ASEAN's
fourth largest trading partner and ASEAN is also China's fourth
biggest market.?
The trade volume is expected to reach US$200 billion by 2008,
two years ahead of schedule, as construction of the China-ASEAN
free trade area surges ahead.
Under a free trade framework agreement by 2010 China and six of
the old ASEAN member nations - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - will impose zero tariffs on
most normal products. Also China and the other four new ASEAN
members - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - will do the same in
2015.
The World Bank has predicted the China-ASEAN free trade area
will emerge as one the most influential powers in the Asia-Pacific
economic rim.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)