BEIJING: Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce Gao Yan is confident that bilateral trade between Asean and China will hit the US$500
billion target by 2015.

In the first half of 2013, bilateral trade between China and Asean totalled US$210.56 billion, up 12.2 per cent year-on-year and recorded a 3.6 percentage point higher than the growth of China's foreign trade, she said.

Hence, she is confident of achieving the target if the two-way trade continued to stay on a positive trend.

Gao told a press conference on "China-Asean Trade and Economic Cooperation, the 10th China-Asean Expo, the 10th China-Asean Business and Investment Summit in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the China-Asean Strategic Partnership here Tuesday.

As of June 30, China's foreign direct investments (FDIs) flow to Asean countries approached US$30 billion, accounting for about 5.1 per cent of China's total outward FDI, she said.

She said Asean has also surpassed Australia, the US and Russia to
become the fourth largest destination for China's outward investment followed by Hong Kong, British Virgin lslands and Cayman Islands.

"Currently, about 2,500 businesses with Chinese direct investments have been set up in Asean countries, nearly 120,000 new jobs have been created," Gao said.

The main focus of China's direct investments on Asean countries was power generation, business services, retail and wholesale, manufacturing, mining and finance.

Asean countries' investments in China reached US$4.1 billion in the first half of this year, accounting for 6.6 per cent of the world's second largest economy's total FDI attraction, Gao added.

China is currently the top trading partner for Asean while Asean is China's third largest trading partner after Japan and the European Union.-- Bernama