China and the ASEAN yesterday in Nanning inked an agreement on port development to drive up trade volume.
The China-ASEAN Port Development and Cooperation Joint Declaration is also called the Nanning Consensus. It was signed yesterday at the conclusion of a forum held during the 4th China-ASEAN Expo in the southwestern Chinese city.
The two sides drafted the China-ASEAN Shipping Transportation Agreement, which is expected to be approved at the 6th China-ASEAN Transportation Ministerial Meeting scheduled for November 2.
They also agreed to set up a port coordination mechanism to create a more business-friendly environment for port-related investment.
Weng Mengyong told a press conference, "For funding, we can resort to the government or financial institutions from home and abroad." He is vice-minister of communications.
Although many industries have been opened up under the China-ASEAN free trade area framework, transportation has been identified by both sides as one of 10 key priority areas.
In 2002, China and the ASEAN kicked off the first of the annual transportation ministerial meetings, which have resulted in collaboration in maritime and rail sectors.
Last year, China-ASEAN trade volume reached $160.8 billion, of which more than $100 billion went through ports.
Statistics show that by the end of last year, China had more than 1,400 ports, handling 5.57 billion tons of cargo throughput in 2006.
Questions:
1.The China-ASEAN Port Development and Cooperation Joint Declaration has another name. What is it?
2.China-ASEAN Shipping Transportation Agreement is expected to be approved at what event in early November?
3.What was the total of China-ASEAN trade volume last year?
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
