Photo taken on Nov. 28, 2020 shows a Pakistani exhibition area of the 17th China-ASEAN Expo at Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The expo runs from Nov. 27 to 30 in Nanning. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

The closing ceremony of the 17th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) was held on Monday. The CAEXPO is a further step in cooperation between China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which will promote regional economic recovery, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday.

CAEXPO, co-hosted by the economic and trade authorities of China and the 10 ASEAN members, has been successfully held for 16 sessions. This year's event was a major international exhibition jointly hosted by China and ASEAN members against the backdrop of unity in the fight against COVID-19, said Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry.

At the expo, various parties signed 86 domestic and international investment and cooperation projects, with an investment value of 263.87 billion yuan ($40.1 billion), a year-on-year increase of 43.6 percent, the largest increase over the years, according to Hua. Among the projects, 85.3 percent involved big data, logistics, new energy, new materials and new manufacturing. 

A total of 1,668 Chinese and foreign enterprises participated in the event, and 1,956 enterprises attended the expo online, said the organizer during the closing ceremony on Monday. The official website had 2.05 million visits as of Monday noon Beijing time, with over 1 billion hits on the internet.

"This fully shows that CAEXPO has a stronger and stronger "magnetic field" effect, and more and more Chinese and foreign enterprises gain development dividends through this platform," said Hua.

During the high-level summit of CAEXPO, the two sides launched cross-border mechanisms and projects including medical cooperation platforms, a regional innovation center for big data and internet applications, an innovation and services center for finance, and the China-ASEAN Technology Transfer Center Bangkok Innovation Center.

China is accelerating the building of a new development pattern and unswervingly opening up to the outside world, which will strongly promote regional economic recovery. China is ready to work with ASEAN to advance cooperation in all fields and build a closer China-ASEAN community of shared future, Hua said.