China playing a rising role in ASEAN business

Being export and investment-oriented, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations economies have benefited from the Chinese market, which has fostered the bloc's rising momentum in both of its economic growth drivers, experts said.

ASEAN member countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, are considered to be the world's most burgeoning economies at a time of global economic fluctuation. It started a new era of its cooperation with China in 2010, when the China-ASEAN free trade zone was launched.

The free trade association, benefiting a population of 1.9 billion and with a GDP of nearly $6 trillion, also signals China's new steps toward the bilateral coordination mechanism. The two sides plan to increase bilateral trade to $1 trillion by 2020.