Illustrative image (Source: xinhua/VNATrade between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China in the first three quarters of the year reached 481.8 billion USD, accounting for one seventh of China's foreign trade, said Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Deng Xijun.
"It grew by 5.6 percent in the second quarter and 7.7 percent in the third quarter, much faster than that between China and other trading partners," China’s Xinhua news agency quoted the diplomat as saying at the Third Jakarta Forum under the theme of "Reinforcing Regional Economic Recovery amid COVID-19", organised by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) on November 2.
ASEAN became China's biggest trading partner in the first half of this year, accounting for 14.7 percent of the nation's total foreign trade volume.
According to Deng, this year, China has already made 10.7 billion USD of direct investment in ASEAN countries, up by 76.6 percent.
2021 will be the 30th anniversary of the ASEAN-China dialogue relations./.