They are gathering to attend the second meeting of the ASEAN-China Business Council (ACBC) and the China-ASEAN Business Co-operation Forum, which opened yesterday.

The two-day meeting of the ACBC, which is focusing on how to build the China-ASEAN FTA, is one of the most important means for non-governmental co-operation and dialogue between China and ASEAN countries.

Premier Zhu Rongji said in his congratulatory letter to the event that the meeting and the forum are matters of great significance since they will facilitate the discussion of issues related to the promotion of the FTA.

In November, Zhu signed the Framework Agreement on ASEAN-China Comprehensive Economic Cooperation with ASEAN leaders in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.

The agreement is set to create a free trade area encompassing 1.7 billion people with rising purchasing power and generating a regional GDP of about US$2 trillion a year, the largest market of its kind in the world.

Yu Xiaosong, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and also the Chinese chairman of the ACBC, said the form of China-ASEAN FTA is an important endeavor of regional cooperation between developing countries against the background of economic globalization.

"The process to set up the FTA is also a process of further joint work between the chambers of commerce in China and ASEAN countries," Yu said.

Pyone Maung Maung, president of ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry and also the ASEAN chairman of ACBC, said further trade and investment promotion, liberalization and facilitation measures are needed for the success construction of the FTA.

The role of the business sector in policy making and in the process of translating these policies into reality is becoming increasingly important, he said.

"In this regard, ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry will play important roles, leading, organizing and vitalizing the enterprises on the one hand and, on the other hand, calling for trade and investment liberalization and facilitation through interfacing between business and government," he said.

Wan Jifei, vice-chairman of the CCPIT, said it was working on the setting-up of a China-ASEAN business website, www.china-asean.net, to provide a platform for co-operation between enterprises between China and ASEAN countries, especially medium and small-sized companies, who play a major part in the marketplace, but are short of market information.

Yan Gaoming, international marketing supervisor of the ZTE Corporation, said China's largest listed telecom equipment company is expected to contribute more in the building of ASEAN countries's telecom infrastructure and believed this kind of co-operation will be largely advanced by the form of FTA.

"ZTE already has many projects in ASEAN countries, but the tariff and non-tariff measures between the two sides waste a lot of money and energy of ZTE and its partners," he said.

The trade volume between China and ASEAN reached US$41.6 billion last year, making China the sixth largest trading partner of ASEAN and ASEAN the fifth largest of China. Two-way trade volume hit US$33.3 billion in the first half of this year, an 24.4 percent increase over the same period of last year.

It is estimated that the establishment of a free trade area will bring a 50 percent increase in exports from both sides.

(China Daily December 17, 2002)