High-level opening up is bringing new opportunities for economic cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and China will forge ahead with institutional opening up to co-create a new future for regional development with ASEAN member states, the Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.

"This year marks the 20th anniversary of the China-ASEAN Expo, or CAEXPO, as well as the establishment of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership. With years of efforts, trade and economic cooperation between China and ASEAN has seen leapfrog development," said Li Fei, China's vice-minister of commerce, during a thematic side event of the 20th CAEXPO held in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

He noted that in the next step, China will make efforts to steadily boost institutional opening, by further reducing the negative list for foreign investment and fully playing the role of opening up platforms such as pilot free trade zones.

"To deepen China-ASEAN trade and investment cooperation, we will pay attention to trade in both traditional industries, such as agriculture, and newly emerged industries, including green and low-carbon development, and digital economy.

"Furthermore, we will jointly promote regional economic integration, accelerate the negotiation of China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement 3.0, and initiate the RCEP new member joining mechanism as soon as possible, to inject new momentums to open-minded, tolerant and sustainable development," he added.