The four-day Second China-ASEAN Expo opened Wednesday in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong attended the opening ceremony, along with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win, Lao Vice President Choummali Sayasone, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and commerce ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

Bo Xilai, China's commerce minister, said at the opening ceremony that the gathering demonstrates the good-neighborly friendship between China and ASEAN countries and their sincerity for cooperation.

The expo is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China, and the trade and economic authorities of the ten ASEAN members, with the participation of more than 2,100 companies from China and abroad.

Lu Bing, chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said the expo is held against the backdrop of the full implementation of building the China-ASEAN free trade area.

"I believe the expo will create more business opportunities to China and ASEAN countries and greatly accelerate the process of setting up the free trade area," he said.

In 2001, China and the ASEAN agreed to set up a free trade area before 2010. Upon completion, the area will have 1.8 billion consumers and a total GDP of of 2 trillion US dollars within this region.

On the sideline of the expo, Chinese and ASEAN business people, scholars, experts and officials are also expected to attend the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.

In recent years, political ties between China and the ASEAN nations have been expanding smoothly, while marked progress has been scored in bilateral trade, two-way investment, project contracts and labor services.

Bilateral trade between China and the ASEAN has been growing at an annual rate of 20 percent since 1990. From January to June this year, trade volume between China and the ASEAN reached 59.76 billion US dollars, an increase of 25 percent, making ASEAN China's fourth largest trade partner.

Source: Xinhua