Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and a Vietnamese delegation left Hanoi on September 16 morning for the 20th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) in Nanning city, Guangxi province of China from September 16-17, at the invitation of the Chinese Government.
Co-hosted annually by China and ASEAN, CAEXPO and CABIS are among China's top 10 exhibitions. In the previous 19 editions of the expo, Vietnam always sent a Government leader to the event and had the largest number of booths and exhibitors among ASEAN countries.
The 20th CAEXPO and CABIS this year has the theme of "Building a harmonious homeland, a common destiny to the future - promoting high-quality development of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and building an economic growth centre".
The two events are part of a series of events to celebrate 20 years of China-ASEAN strategic partnership. The Vietnamese delegation participating in the expo is the largest in ASEAN, with 250 booths covering an area of 5,000 sq.m.
The bilateral trade between Vietnam and China hit 175.56 billion USD last year. In the first eight months of this year, the figure reached 105.5 billion USD while Chinese investments in Vietnam neared 1.3 billion USD with 399 projects, making China the second largest foreign direct investor in Vietnam.
As of August 20, 2023, China maintained its position as the sixth largest investor among 143 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with 3,949 valid projects with a total registered capital of over 25.8 billion USD. China has been the leading source of tourists to Vietnam for several years, with more than 557,000 Chinese arrivals in the first half.
PM Chinh’s attendance at the CAEXPO and CABIS demonstrates the importance both countries place on the bilateral friendly relations, the ASEAN-China cooperation, and the relationship between Vietnamese localities and Guangxi province in China. It reflects a high level of political trust, a spirit of "comradeship and fraternity", and underlines Vietnam’s foreign policy directions set forth at the 13th National Party Congress./.
