2nd China-ASEAN Expo to open Oct in Guangxi
(Xinhuanet)
Updated: 2005-04-01 14:44

The second China-ASEAN Expo will beheld in October in Nanning, capital of Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Expo secretariat said Wednesday.

After consulting with each of the ten ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian  Nations) members, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce decided to advance the date to October 19-22 to avoid overlapping with the Festival of Fast-Breaking, which falls on November 3 this year.

The first China-ASEAN Expo was jointly hosted by the two sides on November 3-6 last year, also in Nanning.

According to the secretariat, the second Expo will have about 3,500 international standard stalls, 1,000 more than the first. It will be held in the Nanning International Exhibition Center, scheduled to be completed in June. The center is designed to hold 15 inside showrooms, covering an area of 50,000 square meters.

China and the ASEAN are preparing to forge a free trade area (FTA)in 2010, which will be the world's third-largest FTA, following the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement. It will cover 1.7-billion people and have a US$2-trillion gross domestic product and a US$1.2- trillion trade volume.

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