Myanmar Prime Minister General Soe Win will attend the Second China-ASEAN Expo and the Second China- ASEAN Business and Investment Summit scheduled to open next Wednesday in Nanning, capital of Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to an official announcement in Yangon Friday.

It will be the second time also for Soe Win to join such event, the first time being in November last year two weeks after he became prime minister.

Soe Win is to lead a 30-member delegation including four ministers to the event and Myanmar local products will be exhibited at the expo which include jewelry, garments, medicines, household goods, silver wares, wood carvings, handicrafts, tapestries, gemstone pictures and marine products,. according to diplomatic sources.

According to Chinese official statistics, China-ASEAN bilateral trade reached 105.9 billion US dollars in 2004, breaking through the target of attaining 100 billion. Over the period from 2002 to 2004, China-ASEAN bilateral trade grew 38.9 percent annually. ASEAN has been China's 5th largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years.

The Chinese statistics also show that China-Myanmar bilateral trade, including border trade, reached 1.145 billion US dollars in 2004, up 6.3 percent over 2003. Of the total, China's exports to Myanmar reached 938 million, while its imports from Myanmar 207 million.

Meanwhile, Myanmar official figures show that China's contracted investment in the country amounted to 130.92 million dollars as of the end of 2004 since 1988.

Source: Xinhua