Building a more prosperous Asia-Pacific

Editor's note: Aiming to deepen regional cooperation and economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, Premier Li Keqiang is on an official visit to Singapore from Monday to Friday, during which he is also scheduled to attend the 21st China-ASEAN leaders' meeting, the 21st ASEAN-China, Japan and Republic of Korea leaders' meeting, and the 13th East Asia Summit. And President Xi Jinping will attend the 26th APEC Informal Leaders' Meeting on Nov 17-18 to address regional trade issues. How can the regional countries deepen economic integration and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific? Two experts share their views on the issue with China Daily's Liu Jianna. Excerpts follow:

An Asia-Pacific FTA can further boost trade

Deeper economic and trade cooperation is among the most notable achievements China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have made in the last few years. It has raised the two-way trade volume to more than $500 billion, close to the China-US trade volume. Deeper cooperation has also raised two-way investment to over $200 billion. And China has been ASEAN's largest trade partner for nine consecutive years while ASEAN has been China's third-largest trade partner for seven years in a row.