The 5th China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Expo will be held in Nanning, China on Oct. 22-25 with 3,300 international standard booths built for the four exhibition themes-pavilions which are the Pavilion of Commodity Trade, Pavilion of Investment Cooperation, Pavilion of Agricultural

The China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO), which is held annually in Nanning, Guangxi, China, is co-sponsored by the departments in charge of economy and trade of China and the 10 members of the Association of Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the ASEAN secretariat.

Organizers have lauded the Expo as "a superb plantform for trading and investment cooperation in the ChinaASEAN Region."

They reported that the CAEXPO has succesfully concluded four sessions in a row, attracting 122,000 exhibitors and trade visitors, as well as 7,413 exhibiting enterprises, with a total trading volume of $4.92 billion and contracting international investment cooperation projects costing $22.26 billion.

This makes it the most well-recognized and influential exposition in the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).

The Philippines and other ASEAN countries have gained economic and trading benefits every year through multi-field exchanges and cooperation in the four previous CAEXPOs.

As one of the co-sponsoring countries of the event, the Philippines used 110 booths at the previous four expositions to showcase agro-based products and food items, including fruits such as banana, juices, processed fruits, bakery, and processed food.

Cebu and Bohol, which are the "Cities of Charm" of the Philippines, were featured in the second and the third CAEXPOs, respectively.

As the City of Charm of the fourth CAEXPO, Subic Bay focused on showcasing the highlights and enormous business opportunities of Filipino harbors, reflecting the important role of the country in regional cooperation.

President Arroyo has cited the event as a "grand platform for the ASEAN and China to enhance bilateral economic and trading exchanges, which have effectively fueled the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area construction.

Organizers said the Pavilion of Commodity Trade focuses on exhibiting three major categories of products of China, including machinery and equipment, electrical appliances and electronics and building materials.

The Pavilion of Investment Cooperation focuses on 12,000 projects with investment potentials from the 10 priority cooperation fields.

The Pavilion of Agricultural Applicable Technology emphasizes the latest agricultural research and development (R&D) achievements of ASEAN countries and China on agricultural planting and animal husbandry, agro- based product, intensive processing, agricultural bio- technology, and modern agricultural equipment.

For the Pavilion of Cities of Charm, the participating countries will choose one major information and communication technology (ICT) city as their respective City of Charm, to comprehensively showcase the city's images, in particular, the planning and development of ICT sector, equipment manufacturing, etc.

The 3rd China- ASEAN Information and Communication Technology Week will be a new highlight of the 5th CAEXPO.

Officials, business professionals, and entrepreneurs in the ICT sectors of China and ASEAN are invited to share their knowledge on development strategies and bring to the audience the information on the latest ICT achievements in the region.