The forthcoming China-ASEAN Expo to be held on Nov. 3-6 in Nanning, China, will be a major event of both economic and political significance in developing bilateral relations, said Chinese ambassador to the Philippines on Friday.

During the press launching of the Nanning China-ASEAN Expo to local and international media journalists here, Chinese Ambassador Wu Hongbo said that the Chinese government attaches great importance to hosting the exposition, which was personally initiated by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and has Vice Premier Wu Yi as the honorary chairperson of its organizing committee.

Ambassador Wu said that the holding of the expo is also an important step in building a peace-and prosperity-oriented strategic partnership between China and the 10 ASEAN countries, as well as a concrete action in building the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area by 2010.

Wu said that the exposition will serve as not only a platform for business cooperation with "competitive openness", but also a field for strengthening political and cultural exchanges between China and ASEAN countries.

China believes that by holding the exposition once a year, China and ASEAN can move on into more comprehensive, deeper and more pragmatic fields of cooperation, in order to realize their goal of breaking 100 billion US dollars in volume of bilateral trade by the end of 2005, said the ambassador.

He said that all participants will benefit from the support of the governments of China and 10 ASEAN countries, as well as the Hong Kong Commerce Development Council. China will organize the first-class enterprises to participate in the show, and welcomes ASEAN entrepreneurs to bring their competitive products, he added.

"Hundreds of world buyers are expected to come at the invitation of the organizers to improve business context and investment opportunities," said Wu.

The ambassador said that as the host of the show, the Guangxi Autonomous Region of China is racing against time to improve the facilities of exposition halls, hotels, airport and sea port services and transportation, including chartered direct flight between Nanning and those ASEAN capitals which have not established direct flights between them.

The yearly Nanning China-ASEAN Exposition is organized by the Commerce Ministry of China and its counterparts in ASEAN countries as well as the ASEAN Secretariat, and is hosted by the People's Government of Guangxi Autonomous Region of China.

Source: Xinhua