The upcoming ASEAN-China foreign ministers' meeting will focus on deepening cooperation to promote regional economy and trade, a senior Thai official said Wednesday.
The 42nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting and the 16th ASEAN Regional Forum will be held at Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket on July 20 and July 23 respectively.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will attend a series of meetings on July 22-23, including the foreign ministers' unofficial consultation of the East Asia Summit, and the foreign ministers' meeting of the 16th ASEAN Regional Forum.
The two sides will discuss how to deepen the linkage to stimulate economic growth and transportation infrastructure in the region, Vitavas Srivihok, Director-General of the Department of ASEAN Affairs of Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with Xinhua.
Regional bio-fuel market development, border trade and investment facilitation, will be other issues to be raised at the meeting, he said.
Over the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (FTA), he said that the ASEAN-China trade agreement will be signed at the economic ministers' meeting scheduled to be held in Thailand in August, which will complete the process of ASEAN FTA with China within 2010.
Despite the ongoing global financial crisis, mutual investment between China and ASEAN continued to increase throughout 2008. According to official statistics, China-ASEAN mutual investment levels had reached some 60 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2008. Bilateral trade had risen to 231.1 billion U.S. dollars, up nearly 14 percent.
Over the ASEAN-China Center issue, Vitavas said a memorandum of understanding (MOU) may be signed at the 15th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Thailand in October. The center to be set up in Beijing is aimed to promote trade and investment between ASEAN and China in private sector and also information exchange.
ASEAN has signed MOUs with Japan and the Republic of Korea to set up such centers in Tokyo and Seoul and it will sign such an agreement with Russia at the upcoming ASEAN meeting in Phuket.
(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2009)
