Myanmar president to attend 9th ASEAN-China expo in Nanning

Myanmar President U Thein Sein will pay a visit to China soon where he will attend the 9th ASEAN- China expo in Nanning, the capital of China's Guangxizhuang Autonomous Region, according to an official announcement here Saturday. The visit will signify U Thein Sein's second to China since he took office as the president in March 2011. Myanmar acts as the host of the expo representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year. China's Nanning and Myanmar's Yangon established friendship city relationship in July 2009. According to Chinese official statistics, in 2011, China- Myanmar bilateral trade totalled 6.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 46.3 percent correspondingly. China's investment in Myanmar also reached 20.26 billion U.S. dollars by the end of last year, leading in Myanmar's foreign trade and foreign investment. In the first six months of 2012, bilateral trade amounted to 2. 6 billion U.S. dollars, while China' s investment in Myanmar also increased during the period. In 2011, the bilateral trade between Guangxi and Myanmar reached 56.19 million U.S. dollars, 197 percent up from 2010.