When Vietnam takes over the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2010, it will try its best to boost cooperation amongst ASEAN members and between the bloc and its partners, including China.
This was stated by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu at the opening ceremony for the forum on the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which opened in Nanning , in China ’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on January 7.
As the global and regional economies have not yet totally recovered, the implementation of ACFTA-related commitments underlines the strong determination and confidence of all the concerned parties to jointly bring the ACFTA to life to prevent all forms of trade protectionism, he stressed.
The forum is the first large-scale event after ACFTA officially came into effect on January 1, 2010. It has been co-organised by the ASEAN Secretariat, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the economic management agencies of the 10 ASEAN member countries, to analyse and assess the achievements made during the process of creating the ACFTA.
The two-day event, which has drawn the participation of over 400 delegates, including government officials, diplomats, analysts and academics from China and ASEAN countries, will propose measures to step up cooperation in investments and trade between China and ASEAN members in the future.
The ACFTA is the world’s largest trade area to be established by developing nations and includes nearly 2 billion consumers. Two-way trade between China and ASEAN reached over 230 billion USD in 2008./.
This was stated by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu at the opening ceremony for the forum on the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which opened in Nanning , in China ’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on January 7.
As the global and regional economies have not yet totally recovered, the implementation of ACFTA-related commitments underlines the strong determination and confidence of all the concerned parties to jointly bring the ACFTA to life to prevent all forms of trade protectionism, he stressed.
The forum is the first large-scale event after ACFTA officially came into effect on January 1, 2010. It has been co-organised by the ASEAN Secretariat, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the economic management agencies of the 10 ASEAN member countries, to analyse and assess the achievements made during the process of creating the ACFTA.
The two-day event, which has drawn the participation of over 400 delegates, including government officials, diplomats, analysts and academics from China and ASEAN countries, will propose measures to step up cooperation in investments and trade between China and ASEAN members in the future.
The ACFTA is the world’s largest trade area to be established by developing nations and includes nearly 2 billion consumers. Two-way trade between China and ASEAN reached over 230 billion USD in 2008./.
