Chinese and Southeast Asia's political and business leaders and
World Bank officials gathering at an annual business summit in
south China have showed great confidence in sound regional economic
growth.
"The ratio of regional trade to the world's total has increased
by 13 percentage points over the past dozens of years" thanks to
rapid regional trade integration which involves China, said Johnnah
Joy Phumaphi, vice president of the World Bank at the Fourth
China-ASEAN Expo, which opened on Sunday in the southern China city
of Nanning, along with the Fourth China-ASEAN Business and
Investment Summit.
China and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
countries have witnessed rapid growth in bilateral trade, which
increased by 191 times -- from less than 8 billion US dollars in
1991 to 160.8 billion dollars in 2006, an annual average growth of
more than 20 percent.
In the first nine months this year, China-ASEAN trade reached
146.5 billion dollars, up 26 percent year on year.
Judging from the current growth momentum, both China and ASEAN
members believe bilateral trade would top the mark of 200 billion
dollars in 2008, two years ahead the set target.
Participants in the summit agreed that if bilateral trade keeps
rising at the present rate of higher than 20 percent, the ASEAN
would become one of China's top trade partners in 2010 when the
China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is in place.
By that time, the world's most populous free trade area, with a
total population of 2 billion, would become a new engine to drive
the growth of the world economy, observers said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2007)
