Myanmar Prime Minister General Soe Win will attend the upcoming commemorative summit to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of Dialogue Relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) later this month, according to an official announcement Thursday.

 

The event is scheduled for Oct. 30 in Nanning City, capital of Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

 

It will be the third time for Soe Win to join a China-ASEAN- related function in China.

 

Soe Win attended the China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning in November 2004 and October 2005.

 

According to Chinese official statistics, China-ASEAN bilateral trade grew 20 percent annually over the past 15 years, reaching US$130.3 billion in 2005, up 23 percent from 2004 and 15 times from 1991.

 

At a time when the ASEAN Free Trade Area is being formally implemented, the annual percentage of increase of bilateral trade exceeded 20 percent, estimating that the trade volume for the entire 2006 could attain a record high of about US$150 billion.

 

The Chinese statistics also show that China-Myanmar bilateral trade hit US$1.209 billion in 2005, up 5.6 percent from 2004. Of the total, China's exports to Myanmar took US$935 million, while its import from Myanmar stood at US$274 million.

 

Of the bilateral trade, volume between Yunnan Province and Myanmar, including the border trade, amounted to US$630 million during the year, up 14.6 percent from the previous year. Yunnan's exports to Myanmar reached US$400 million, while its import from Myanmar was valued at US$230 million.

 

The latest figures from the Chinese Customs Department indicate that China-Myanmar bilateral trade in the first half of 2006 amounted to US$662 million, a 10.8-percent rise compared with the same period of 2005. Of the total, China's export to Myanmar took US$549 million, up 30.5 percent, while China's import from Myanmar US$114 million, down 35.9 percent. China realized a trade surplus of US$434 million.

 

Myanmar official figures also reveal that the volume of border trade between Myanmar and China transacting at the Muse trade point alone amounted to US$311 million in the first half of 2006, up from US$257 million in the same period of 2005.

 

The two countries have set a target for their annual bilateral trade to reach US$1.5 billion.

 

Meanwhile, China stands as the 11th largest foreign investor in Myanmar and has contracted to invest US$203.52 million in 25 projects as of 2005, according to Myanmar official sources.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2006)