The organizer of the eighth China-ASEAN Expo and the eighth China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit has hailed the events as “successful” and “fruitful”, as well as an important platform to promote China-ASEAN cooperation and the development of the China-ASEAN free trade area (FTA).

The expo and the summit have played an important role in increasing mutual understanding between China and ASEAN member countries, enhancing people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, and deepening China-ASEAN cooperation, said Zheng Junjian, secretary-general of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat, on Wednesday at a press conference held after the expo's closing ceremony.

The expo, summit, and 14 concurrent meetings and forums have made China and its Southeast Asian neighbors more confident about successfully boosting the development of the FTA, Zheng said.

The total trading volume achieved at this year's expo and business summit reached $1.81 billion, up 5.6 percent from the previous expo, according to Zheng.

About 2,300 enterprises participated in the events, held over a six-day period, and 105 international economic agreements were signed, with the total investment up 10.86 percent from last year to $7.42 billion.

Among those, 69 projects were signed with Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region with a total investment of $4.69 billion, accounting for 63.2 percent of the total investment of all international projects.

Next year, the ninth China-ASEAN Expo will highlight scientific and technological cooperation, while this year’s expo focuses on environmental protection cooperation, said Wei Ran, vice secretary-general of the Guangxi regional government.

Technology is one of the major areas of cooperation between China and ASEAN member countries, many of which are developing countries that urgently need to develop technology, Wei said.

"Many enterprises from China and ASEAN are in dire need of such an important platform as the China-ASEAN expo to promote their advanced technology,” he said.