(KPL) ASEAN Secretary General has praised the role of the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) in promoting trade, investment and tourism while expounding how the expo will boost China-ASEAN ties and the cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China.

In an interview with CGTN in Nanning of Guangxi in south China on Friday, ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn said the current fast growth between two sides is one of the outcomes of holding the expo ever since it was first launched in 2004.

Official data showed that trade volume between China and ASEAN in 2022 reached 975.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 120 percent compared with 10 years ago as a result of upgraded cooperation.

"The China-ASEAN Expo has been a very important mechanism as a platform to promote actively trade, investment, tourism, and business matching for example between ASEAN and China for two decades. This is a major achievement in terms of the ongoing cooperation between both sides. I think ASEAN leaders, ministers and senior officials and officials have been coming to Nanning in the past 20 years to promote our cooperation. And that's why I think we can say that one of the products of the China-ASEAN Expo would be the sustained trading that we have between ASEAN and China. That's why in the past 14 years, like you say, China has been the largest trading partner for ASEAN, and I think it's very important. Of course, moving forward, we hope that we will continue to build on the achievements, accomplishments, successes of the China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning," he said.

The secretary-general also emphasized the significance of pursuing the high-quality construction of the BRI in terms of cooperation with ASEAN countries, with the year 2023 marking the 10th anniversary of the initiative.

"We need to take advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework which has been supporting various big projects in ASEAN. Infrastructure project requires substantial investment. I think that's where China's been playing a pivotal role to support the development of ASEAN. I think that's where we will have to move forward because BRI can be a catalyst for more development, for continuing to build prosperity in the region and also around the world," said the secretary-general.

The four-day 20th CAEXPO started on Saturday in Nanning, drawing nearly 2,000 enterprises from home and abroad.

With an exhibition area of 102,000 square meters, the expo has 150,000 pieces of exhibits on display in total, the number skyrocketing by more than three times year on year.

Since the first China-ASEAN Expo was held in 2004 in Nanning, the event has become a popular platform for ASEAN enterprises to enter the Chinese market.

The expo takes place normally every September in the permanent host city of Nanning with the participation of thousands of enterprises from ASEAN countries.

Founded in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

KPL