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CABIS boosts China-ASEAN trade
(China Daily Guangxi Bureau)
Updated: 2009-06-23 15:51

Trade volume between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China has doubled since 2004 reaching the target three years ahead of schedule thanks to the CABIS summit.

CABIS or the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit - a platform for dialogue within the business sector between China and ASEAN - is an annual event launched in 2004.

Nanning Municipality is the permanent venue for CABIS, which is co-sponsored by China and the 10 members of the ASEAN and coincides with the annual China-ASEAN Expo.

With its principle of "Aiming to achieve concrete results and blaze new trails for sustainable development" the five consecutive CABIS summits proved to be a success.

According to statistics，trade volume between China and ASEAN has doubled since 2004, when the first CABIS summit was held, reaching the target of a two-way trade volume of US$200 billion three years ahead of schedule.

Despite the global financial downturn the bilateral trade volume in 2008 saw a 13.9 percent increase.

This year 27 state leaders from China and the 10 ASEAN nations have attended the summit along with around 800 ministerial officials and over 7,600 business leaders, experts and scholars.

Since the annual summit was launched in 2004 there has been a rapid expansion of two-way investment between China and ASEAN showing CABIS serves as an important impetus enhancing economic and trade ties between the two entities.

The CABIS summit has been referred to as "one of the most influential government-sponsored conventions in China" in the 2009 Annual Meeting of China Conference Exhibition Industry recently held in Shanghai.

With the Central American Free Trade Agreement's implementation in 2010，the strategic partnership between China and ASEAN is expected to enter a new development phase and the annual CABIS summit to resume.