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1st China-ASEAN Expo concludes
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-11-07 09:07
The first China-ASEAN Expo. concluded on Saturday in Nanning, capital of
southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with the signing of millions
of US dollars contracts.
During the four-day Expo, Chinese and foreign companies signed 129 contracts
worth nearly US$5 billion and Chinese domestic investors inked 102 contracts
worth 47.5 billion yuan (US$5.75 billion) with their domestic partners.
The total contractual investment includes US$493 million from Chinese
investors to overseas projects, according to Li Jinzao, deputy director of the
organizing committee.
The Expo attracted 18,000 Chinese and overseas businessmen and over 300,000
visitors from home and abroad, he said, noting that a total of 1,505 companies
participated in the exhibition, including 516 overseas enterprise.
Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Laotian Prime
Minister Boungnang Vorachit and Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win presented the
Expo opening ceremony and attended various of activities.
The Expo, along with a China-ASEAN investment summit and promotions, covers
sectors such as machinery, electronic home appliance, information technology,
automobile, construction material, agricultural products, medicine and textile.
The Expo was a "great success" and "paved the way for the building of
ASEAN-China free trade area," said Pengiran Mashor Pengiran Ahmad, deputy
secretary-general of the ASEAN Secretariat.
China and ASEAN was set to forge free trade area (FTA) in 2010, which will be
the world's third largest FTA with a 1.7-billion population,
2-trillion-US-dollars gross domestic product and US$1.2-trillion trade volume,
following the European Union and North American Free Trade Agreement.
Initiated by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in 2003, the China- ASEAN Expo was
scheduled to be held in Nanning annually, in a bid to promote the common
prosperity of the two sides.
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