Information industry, investment, transportation, energy and tourism will be the major sectors in future economic cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), experts said.

 

"Traded products between China and ASEAN are changing from raw products to finished industrial goods, especially mechanical, electrical or high-tech products," said Gao Hucheng, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce.

 

Among the 3,178 Chinese enterprises registered to attend the third session of the China-ASEAN Expo by Oct. 18, machinery, electronical and electrical manufacturers accounted for 82 percent. ????

 

The Expo also shows changes in traded products by ASEAN countries, as rice, jade and iron ore that were once recognized by many Chinese as tokens for Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam are being replaced by rosewood furniture, household appliances and textiles.

 

In 2005, trade volume between China and the ASEAN reached some US$130 billion, in which mechanical, electrical or high-tech products racked up 60 percent and 45 percent of the total in the two sides respectively.

 

"This change contributes to the fast expansion of China-ASEAN bilateral trade that had outpaced the growth of China's foreign trade," said professor Chai Yu, director of the economics office of the Asia-Pacific Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

 

The professor estimates that China-ASEAN trade may well reach the US$200 billion target by 2008, two years ahead of the scheduled time.

 

China and ASEAN are bent on establishing a free trade area, expected to be the third largest in the world after the European Union and the North American free trade area. The area will encompass a total of 1.8 billion people with a combined gross national product of US$2 trillion upon its completion in 2010.

 

Tariffs of certain products between China and six old ASEAN member countries -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- shall be slashed to zero by then, while China and the other four new ASEAN members -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam-- are scheduled to impose zero tariff in 2015.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2006)