With the objective of pursuing regional free trade and enhancing political mutual trust China and ASEAN leaders are gathering in Nanning, capital of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, for a high-level summit meeting on Monday.

 

Chinese experts on international affairs believe the summit marking the 15th China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations will push the strategic partnership to a new level.

 

Six of the 10 ASEAN country leaders had already flown to the city at press time for the summit including the prime ministers of Cambodian, Singapore, the Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and president of the Philippines. Leaders of the remaining ASEAN members were expected to arrive in Nanning late Sunday or Monday.

 

This is the first time Chinese leaders and the ten ASEAN member countries have convened in China. They're widely expected to chart a future direction for China-ASEAN relations in the coming years.

 

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will hold bilateral meetings with ASEAN leaders respectively on the sidelines of the summit. The third China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit are to kick off on Tuesday.

 

By 1991 China had established diplomatic ties with all members of ASEAN. It became ASEAN 's all-around dialogue-partnership country in 1996. Currently China and ASEAN are committed to cementing the "strategic partnership oriented to peace and prosperity".

 

According to Chinese statistics China-ASEAN bilateral trade grew 20 percent annually over the past 15 years and topped US$130 billion last year-15 times the figure of 1991. China is now ASEAN's fourth largest trading partner and ASEAN is also China's fourth biggest market. 

 

The trade volume is expected to reach US$200 billion by 2008, two years ahead of schedule, as construction of the China-ASEAN free trade area surges ahead.

 

Under a free trade framework agreement by 2010 China and six of the old ASEAN member nations - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - will impose zero tariffs on most normal products. Also China and the other four new ASEAN members - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - will do the same in 2015.

 

The World Bank has predicted the China-ASEAN free trade area will emerge as one the most influential powers in the Asia-Pacific economic rim.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)