The organizing committee conference of China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) was held in Beijing on Aug 18.

The conference proposed to take full advantage of the CAEXPO and the CABIS as the role of platform, and to continuously improve the meeting mechanism in order to better serve China's neighboring diplomacy and the strategy of The Belt and Road Initiative.

Gao Hucheng, the minister of China's Ministry of Commerce and director of the CAEXPO Committee, said at the conference that The Belt and Road Initiative created a brand new opportunity for the mutual complementarities between China and ASEAN member states. Under the New Normal, it is of great significance to organize a sound and productive Expo and summit.

"We should precisely grasp the profound strategic meaning of The Belt and Road Initiative in accordance with the national strategic deployment. The CAEXPO's further development is set to improve its value chain and boost its brand influence and market attraction. It can also inspire ASEAN more actively in communicating, building and sharing The Belt and Road Initiative strategy with China, while paving the way for free flow of economic elements, efficient allocation of resources and the deep integration of the market," said Gao.

"We must pay utmost attention to and make more efforts for the 12th CAEXPO and CABIS, including strengthening collaboration, ensuring flawless work of long term mechanisms and transforming work style."

Jiang Zengwei, the president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and director of Business and Investment Summit Committee, said, "With joint efforts, this year's summit operates well and makes overall progress. Next steps include setting themes, organizing the venues and inviting companies, all of which have one objective: to promote effectiveness. By reinforcing the linkage between the summit and bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and by exploring to build a new platform, we can create more cooperation opportunities for China and ASEAN countries as well as the companies from both sides."