Indonesia hosts seminar to celebrate 25th ASEAN-China relations anniversary

发布时间:2016-06-03 16:55:00  |  来源:Xinhua  |  作者:  |  责任编辑:杨霄霄
关键词:Indonesia hosts seminar to celebrate 25th ASEAN-China relations anniversary

ndonesia's city of Semarang hostedon Friday a seminar attended by experts from China and severalASEAN countries, discussing various issues persisting in therelation of the two advancing economies.

"ASEAN stands out as the priorityof China's diplomacy in its neighboring regions. Since thelaunching of Dialogue Relations 25 years ago, China and ASEAN havemade great achievements in practical cooperation in all fields,"China ambassador to ASEAN Xu Bu, said in his remarks in the seminarto commemorate 25th anniversary of China- ASEAN relations.

He said that the option to chooseSemarang to host the seminar was based on historical basis as thecapital of Indonesia's Central Java province witnessedChina-Indonesia friendly exchanges with the arrival and passages offamous Chinese navigator Zheng He six centuries ago, thus embodiedthe established China-ASEAN amity.

A grand temple heavily designedwith Chinese architecture was established by locals in Semarang tohonor Zheng He.

Ambassador Xu Bu said ASEAN-Chinarelation has now entered Diamond decade, as termed by ChinesePremier Li Keqiang, which boasts broader and deeper cooperationbetween the two economies.

ASEAN-China saw what it called asDiamond era in ten years after they established StrategicPartnership for Peace and Security relation in 2003 following longdecade of ties that initially put China as a dialogue partner toASEAN in 1991.

In 2015, China-ASEAN tradeaggregate topped 472 billion U.S Dollars with China-ASEAN two-wayinvestment amounted to more than 156 billion U.S. dollars. Two-waytrade and investment between the two economies were targeted toreach 1 trillion U.S. Dollars and 150 billion U.S. Dollarsrespectively by 2020.

The building of ASEAN Communityopened this year injects vitality into the upgrading of China-ASEANFree Trade Area (FTA), Xu said, adding that protocol pronouncingthe full conclusion of China-ASEAN negotiations on upgrading theFTA was signed in November last year, to take into effect inJuly.

Xu said that broader markets, moreconvenient terms of trade and better investment environment inASEAN will help achieve a speedy and steady upgrading ofChina-ASEAN FTA.

Xu said that China has been ASEAN'sbiggest trading partner for seven consecutive years while ASEANranked as China's third largest trading partner for fourconsecutive years.

In term of people-to-peopleexchange, Xu said that the volume has reached 23 million personswith more than 180,000 overseas students were sent by China andASEAN countries reciprocally.

"Every week, there are more than1,000 flights shuttling between China and ASEAN countries. Closereconomic ties, greater financing links and richer people-to-peopleexchanges between China and ASEAN bond our destinies much tighterthan ever before," Xu pointed out.

The seminar, attended by expertsfrom China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, thePhilippines and Thailand here, evaluated and envisaged the prospectof relations between the two economies after 25 years and securityissues. Enditem


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