Trade volume between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reached over 220 billion USD in the first half of this year, up 4.8 percent year on year, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Investment between the two sides hit 120 billion USD in late June, with 80 billion USD from ASEAN and 40 billion USD from China.

Among ASEAN members, Singapore remains the biggest investor in China with 7.2 billion USD last year.

Meanwhile, Malaysia became the first in the region to handle more than 100 billion USD in trade with China in 2013, and the third Asian country to achieve such trade figure with China annually, after Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Last year, China and ASEAN saw a rise of 10.9 percent to 444 billion USD in trade, higher than a 7.6 percent increase in China's total foreign trade.

China is now the largest trading partner of ASEAN which, in turn, has emerged as China's third-largest partner.-VNA