NANNING, Oct. 1 -- The first Sino-ASEAN forum on pesticide trade and management will be held in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from Nov. 1 to 4.

Ye Guibiao, secretary-general of the organizing committee, said government officials, specialists, pesticide makers, traders and marketing personnel from China and member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be invited to discuss issues regarding management and future development of pesticide trading.

ASEAN has become China's fifth largest trade partner, the fifth biggest export region and fourth largest source of imports. The volume of trade between China and ASEAN was 130.4 billion U.S. dollars last year.

One quarter of China's pesticide exports are destine for the ASEAN states of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The forum will be sponsored by China's Ministry of Agriculture, the Secretariat of the Sino-ASEAN Expo and the Guangxi autonomous regional bureau of agriculture.