Bilateral trade between China and the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN) will reach 500 billion USD in 2015, Chinese ViceMinister of Commerce Gao Yan was quoted as saying at a press conferencein Beijing on July 23.
According to the ChineseMinistry of Commerce (MOC), China-ASEAN bilateral trade has surged inthe past decade, from 54.77 billion USD in 2002 to 400.1 billion USD in2012, with an average annual growth rate of 22 percent.
The first half of this year saw a year-on-year increase of 12.2percent in China-ASEAN trade that totaled 210.56 billion USD, said theMOC.
As ASEAN’s biggest trade partner, Chinarecorded a trade surplus of 8.5 billion USD in 2012 in its trade withthe 10-nation group and pledged to increase imports from ASEAN.
By the end of June, Chinese direct investment in ASEAN countriesreached around 30 billion USD, while ASEAN direct investment towardChina exceeded 80 billion USD, according to the MOC.
The 10th China-ASEAN Expo will be held from September 3-6 in southChina ’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as part of activities tocelebrate the 10th anniversary of China-ASEAN partnership.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-VNA