At the press conference for the China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit held by China Information Office of the State Council on the morning of Sep 15, Fu Zhiying, Assistant Minister of Commerce of PRC declared that the 2nd China-ASEAN Expo and the 2nd China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be held in Nanning, Guangxi.

Li Jinzao, Vice Governor of Guangxi, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat notified the preparatory work to foreign ambassadors in China, delegations from the Beijing offices of Hong Kong and Macao, home and broad media. Yu Changpin, Deputy Director of the Summit and Vice Chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Chen Zexing, Deputy Director General of Beijing Commerce Bureau are seated on the rostrum and answered journalists’ questions. Liu Xinhua, Inspector from the Department of Asian Affairs of China Ministry of Commerce, Gu Xiaosong, Senior Consultant of CAExpo and representatives from Hong Kong Trade Development Council presented at the conference which was chaired by Guo Weimin, Director General of the First Bureau of China Information Office of the State Council.

Mr Fu Zhiying said, China and ASEAN countries are friendly neighbouring countries,  mutual understanding of politics between which is being enhanced, bilateral economic and trading cooperation is being furthered, dialogues on security issues are held more frequently, and cooperation is being extended in many fields. Since the bilateral cooperation scaled being extended and the level being improved, the economic and trading cooperation enters a golden age. Since the initiation of construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2002, the bilateral trading volume increased USD 50 billion within 2 two years, which makes ASEAN the 5th largest export market and the 4th largest import source of China.  In the first half of 2005, the bilateral trading volume amounted to USD 59.76 billion, an increase of 25% over the same period of previous year. ASEAN emerge as the 4th largest trading partner of China. Along with the further strengthened bilateral economic and trading cooperation, the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is accelerated. And the tariff reduction program within the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area inaugurated in July this year indicates the CAFTA construction has entered a comprehensive stage of execution.

He said, holding the China-ASEAN Expo is a specific move of the governments of China and the 10 ASEAN Countries to promote cooperation of business communities at both sides and accelerate the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. The 1st CAExpo co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the Ministries or Departments in charge of economy and trade of 10 ASEAN countries was successfully held in Nanning. At the 8th China-ASEAN (10+1) Summit held right after the 1st Expo, state leaders of ASEAN Countries delivered congratulation remarks on the success of the 1st Expo, which were written into the Chairman’s Statement released afterwards. With the progress of construction of the Free Trade Area, enterprises of China and ASEAN Countries, via the China-ASEAN Expo, will obtain more business opportunities to access to the markets of each other, and will share more benefits brought about by policies of free investment and trade facilitation within the region.  The Expo is emerging as a propeller for further economic and trading cooperation between China and ASEAN.

In July this year, China and ASEAN jointly inaugurated the comprehensive tariff reduction program, thus the commodities of China and ASEAN Countries may enjoy smooth access to the markets of each other thanks to the low tariffs even zero tariffs as well as other favorable market access conditions. To cater to the tariff reduction program within the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the 2nd China-ASEAN Expo will moderately expand its scale to meet the demands of business professionals for further exploring markets. The setting-up of themes tends to be more professional; Pre-matching of trade and projects is more pragmatic; Services provided are more businessmen-centered, so that participants can enjoy quality services.

The Ministry of Commerce of China and the People’s Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are seeking to well prepare the 2nd China-ASEAN Expo. He believed that under the joint efforts of China and the ASEAN Member Countries, emerging as a propeller for further economic and trading cooperation between China and ASEAN, the China-ASEAN Expo will foster more business opportunities for enterprises, enabling them to share the cooperation fruits and the practical profits brought about by the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

Mr. Li Jinzao said, the preparatory work of the 2nd Expo and the Summit is progressing as scheduled. Up to now, 3,332 booths have been applied for, 2,075 among which are confirmed.  Enterprises from ASEAN Countries, Japan and the Republic of Korea applied for 808 booths, 652 among which are confirmed.  The first-phase of booth arrangement is ready, and the preparatory work including liaison between sponsors of the Expo, reception, publicity and promotion, security is also going smoothly.

He said the 2nd Expo will have the features as follow: catalogues of exhibits are selected to reflect the actual trade status between China and ASEAN Countries; More efforts will be put in pre-matching of trade and projects to achieve more economic and trading yields; The 2nd Expo will showcase China and the 10 ASEAN Countries through the special promotion on the “Cities of Charm”;  As co-sponsors of the China-ASEAN Expo, the ASEAN Countries are actively involved in the Expo; We will putting more efforts in optimizing services.

Mr. Yu Ping answered journalists’ questions about the preparatory work of China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit. He said that as the grandest event in the industry and commerce circles in China and the ASEAN countries, the Summit aims to promote the all-round economic cooperation between China and ASEAN countries and the construction of CAFTA, to build a cooperation platform for government officials of China and 10 ASEAN countries and people from business and academic circles to publicize economic and trade policies, introduce cooperation projects, facilitate multi-directional interactions and the communication of information, to provide more business opportunities for purchasers, producers and investors, as well as to promote policy making and commercial cooperation between China and ASEAN countries by expressing the wishes of the business circles to governments of the countries.

He said, the successful 1st Summit created an effective platform for enhancing the communication and cooperation between central governments and entrepreneurs, strengthened the close diplomatic relations between China and ASEAN Countries, pushed the development of the strategic partnership oriented to peace and prosperity of the two sides, and accomplished economic and political yields. The preparatory work of the 2nd Summit ia highly concerned by the the ministries and committees concerned of China, the CPC Guangxi Committee and the People’s Government of Guangxi. And ministries of economy and trade and the major chambers of commerce of the ASEAN Countries are offering support to the Summit, and they will organize senior delegations to the Summit. The 2nd Summit, with the theme of “China and ASEAN Countries: Market Opening and Exploring”, consists of two topics.  One is “Governments: Building a Mutually Beneficial and Win-win Environment for Intra-regional Cooperation”. The other topic is “Enterprises and Chambers of Commerce: Sharing and Exploring the Opened Market through Cooperation”.

Chen Zhexing, the Deputy Director General of Beijing Commerce Bureau gave brief introduction of Beijing which would be promoted as “City of Charm” at the China-ASEAN Expo.