On September 18, the 12th China-ASEAN Expo, and China-ASEAN Business & Investment Summit were opened in Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center of Guangxi Province. Mr. Zhang Gaoli, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council of China, attended the opening ceremony and delivered the keynote speech. China International Trade Representative and Vice Minister of Ministry of Commerce Zhang Shan made a speech at the opening ceremony.
Zhong pointed out that, the friendly cooperation between China and ASEAN has been deepened unceasingly. We have set up China-ASEAN FTA jointly which widely benefits the people in the region. We have built the platform of China-ASEAN Expo jointly to share the achievements of trade and investment facilitation with enterprises of the two parties. Standing at the new historical starting point, President Xi Jinping put forward the great initiative of co-building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which brings new opportunities to China-ASEAN cooperation, and injects new power to the common development and common prosperity in the region.
Zhong said that, with the theme of “co-building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road—Creating a beautiful blueprint of maritime cooperation” , the China-ASEAN Expo this year will integrate the cooperation consensus, invite all parties to give ideas on co-building and upgrading China-ASEAN FTA, and will expand bilateral communications and cooperation in various fields, in order to make greater contributions to the construction of a closer China-ASEAN community of common destiny.
More than 1,000 people attended the opening ceremony including the leaders and ministers of ASEAN countries, the Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN, Deputy Secretary General of WTO, the Representatives of ITC, the Diplomatic Envoys of China, the ASEAN and surrounding countries, the Chairman of associations and chambers of Commerce of the countries, the famous entrepreneurs and celebrities of all sectors of the society.