The 13th China-ASEAN Expo and the 13th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be held in Nanning, capital of southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region in September. China's State Council Information Office held a press conference explaining more about preparations for the events and bilateral cooperation.

"2016 marks the 25th anniversary of China-ASEAN relations. Meanwhile, ASEAN ushers in 2016 as a community. The expo will deepen win-win cooperation, and build more consensus on jointly building the 21st century maritime silk road, and help facilitate the upgrading the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area," Chinese vice minister of Commerce Gao Yan said.

Officials say that China-ASEAN trade exceeded 470 billion US dollars in 2015, and two-way investment amounted to more than 156 billion US dollars. By 2020, it is expected that trade will be reach 1 trillion US dollars and investment will be worth 150 billion US dollars.