Economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN countries is increasingly expanding and becoming closer under the framework of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA), said Chinese Ministry of Commerce official Liang Wentao on Tuesday.

"China and ASEAN have witnessed increasing cooperation and achieved fruitful results over the past 20 years," Liang said prior to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's attendance at a series of meetings for East Asian leaders to be held in Bali, Indonesia, later this month.

This year is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN, it is also the China-ASEAN ASEAN-China Friendship and Exchange Year.

"Over the past 20 years, China has witnessed sound development of bilateral economic and trade relations with ASEAN countries, especially after the establishment of the China-ASEAN FTA in January 2010," said Liang.

China-ASEAN trade has maintained rapid growth momentum. The volume of bilateral trade jumped from $7.96 billion in 1991 to $292.8 billion in 2010.

China is now already the largest trading partner of ASEAN, while ASEAN ranks as China's third-largest trading partner.

In recent years, economic cooperation and trade between China and ASEAN countries has continued to deepen, expanding from trade in primary products to trade in industrial products, especially high-tech products.

According to Liang, the trade composition between China and ASEAN is highly complementary and the market demand is very strong.

"We believe that China and ASEAN countries have confidence and ability to overcome the current difficulties and to better develop trade," he said.

In recent years, two-way investment has continued to increase. China has stepped up its investment in ASEAN countries, and ASEAN is becoming an important destination for overseas investment for Chinese companies.

"We will sign some relevant documents with ASEAN countries in the meetings to be held in Indonesia, we hope to consolidate and improve the development of China-ASEAN FTA," Liang said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2011)