Transportation ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China pledged to work together for closer port cooperation at a forum on Sunday.

The two-day China-ASEAN Port Development and Cooperation Forum, themed "strengthening regional cooperation and promoting common development", is a key event of the ongoing Fourth China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) held in Nanning of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China.

Some 450 corporate executives of port administration, shipping, logistics, shipbuilding and repair, port equipment manufacturing, harbor investors, and experts and scholars met at the forum to exchange views on the impact of the international shipping industry on regional port cooperation and logistics, as well as the development strategy and financing of ports and port cities.

A joint declaration on China-ASEAN port development and cooperation is likely to be passed at the forum, along with a study report on cooperation among ports in the Pan Beibu Gulf Rim, an area surrounded by south China's Guangdong and Hainan provinces and Guangxi, as well as six ASEAN members. A number of port investment contracts will also be signed before the forum closes on Monday.

To underline the theme, a large model of an ocean liner has been created in the open-air plaza outside the international exhibition center in Nanning, the permanent venue of CAEXPO.

"Last year alone, US$100 billion of goods in the China-ASIAN bilateral trade are handled via ports and shipping, that's more than half of the total trade volume," Li said at the forum.

Bilateral trade between the two sides reached US$160.8 billion in 2006, more than twenty-folded the amount in 1991.

Statistics show that by the end of last year, China has more than 1,400 ports, handling 5.57 billion tons of cargo throughputs in 2006.

"Cooperation between China and the ASIAN ports is in the best time in history," Li said.

China has signed shipping agreements with Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The content of a shipping agreement between China and the ASIAN has been basically approved by two sides, according to the minister.

Sun Chanthol, transportation minister of Cambodia, said that the agreement is expected to be inked at the 6th China-ASIAN Transportation Ministers Meeting to be held in Singapore early November.

Nine of the 10-nation ASEAN, excluding Laos, are maritime countries. Port economies play an important role in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam.

Guangxi has poured nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) to build infrastructure and improve service capacity of ports along the Beibu Gulf. It is also involved in many cooperative programs with ports in ASEAN countries.

The port forum is one of the nine forums or conferences held during this year's CAEXPO, covering a wide range of topics including electric power development, poverty reduction, and product quality supervision.

The ASEAN, established on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok, now groups Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia.

Ports and shipping have become the important vessel for the friendly cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASIAN), said Chinese Transportation Minister Li Shenglin here on Sunday.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2007)