Soe Thet Naung, consul general of Myanmar in Nanning. [Photo by Yu Jing/chinanews.com]

Commerce and trade between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China has yielded many fruitful outcomes, according to one of its leading foreign envoys, who was speaking recently and who added that he was bullish about the future.

"I believe the mutual cooperation will be closer," said Soe Thet Naung, consul general of Myanmar to Nanning, capital city of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

ASEAN and China became each other's largest trading partner in the first three quarter of 2020 and the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement on Nov 15 was expected to inject new impetus into economic growth between ASEAN and China, as well as for the whole world, the official said.

"The economic and trade cooperation between ASEAN and China is mainly conducted under the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy and the Pan-Beibu Gulf economic cooperation," Myanmar's consul general said.

He added that cooperation between Myanmar and China has expanded to various areas spanning commerce, trade, culture and the construction of infrastructure.

The official said the construction of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor had made substantial progress. The China-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines has also become a symbolic project in terms of large-scale energy cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Myanmar's Yangon port and Guangxi's Qinzhou port have forged sister port relations, allowing Burmese products including rice to enter the Chinese market via sea transportation through Qinzhou, he added. 

Myanmar has booked 27 offline exhibition stands for the upcoming China-ASEAN Expo – or CAEXPO – which runs from Nov 27 to 30, aiming to establish more connections with China.