SEMARANG, June 3, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Xu Bu (3rd L) addresses a seminar on the China-ASEAN 25-year relations, in Semarang, Indonesia, June 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Agung Kuncahya B.)
SEMARANG, Indonesia, June 3 (Xinhua) --Indonesia's city of Semarang hosted on Friday a seminar attended by experts from China and several ASEAN countries, discussing various issues persisting in the relation of the two advancing economies.
"ASEAN stands out as the priority of China's diplomacy in its neighboring regions. Since the launching of Dialogue Relations 25 years ago, China and ASEAN have made great achievements in practical cooperation in all fields," China ambassador to ASEAN Xu Bu, said in his remarks in the seminar to commemorate 25th anniversary of China- ASEAN relations.
He said that the option to choose Semarang to host the seminar was based on historical basis as the capital of Indonesia's Central Java province witnessed China-Indonesia friendly exchanges with the arrival and passages of famous Chinese navigator Zheng He six centuries ago, thus embodied the established China-ASEAN amity.
A grand temple heavily designed with Chinese architecture was established by locals in Semarang to honor Zheng He.
Ambassador Xu Bu said ASEAN-China relation has now entered Diamond decade, as termed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, which boasts broader and deeper cooperation between the two economies.
ASEAN-China saw what it called as Diamond era in ten years after they established Strategic Partnership for Peace and Security relation in 2003 following long decade of ties that initially put China as a dialogue partner to ASEAN in 1991.
In 2015, China-ASEAN trade aggregate topped 472 billion U.S Dollars with China-ASEAN two-way investment amounted to more than 156 billion U.S. dollars. Two-way trade and investment between the two economies were targeted to reach 1 trillion U.S. Dollars and 150 billion U.S. Dollars respectively by 2020.
The building of ASEAN Community opened this year injects vitality into the upgrading of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA), Xu said, adding that protocol pronouncing the full conclusion of China-ASEAN negotiations on upgrading the FTA was signed in November last year, to take into effect in July.
Xu said that broader markets, more convenient terms of trade and better investment environment in ASEAN will help achieve a speedy and steady upgrading of China-ASEAN FTA.
Xu said that China has been ASEAN's biggest trading partner for seven consecutive years while ASEAN ranked as China's third largest trading partner for four consecutive years.
In term of people-to-people exchange, Xu said that the volume has reached 23 million persons with more than 180,000 overseas students were sent by China and ASEAN countries reciprocally.
"Every week, there are more than 1,000 flights shuttling between China and ASEAN countries. Closer economic ties, greater financing links and richer people-to-people exchanges between China and ASEAN bond our destinies much tighter than ever before," Xu pointed out.
The seminar, attended by experts from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand here, evaluated and envisaged the prospect of relations between the two economies after 25 years and security issues.
