© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
DEVELOPMENTS & HISTORY |
Report on the Second China–ASEAN Expo: 18–21 October 2005, Nanning, Guangxi, China
This report begins with a brief historical sketch of events leading up to the conclusion of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and CHINA in 2002 and the maximum utilization of their collective efforts to implement the establishment of CHINA–ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) for China and ASEAN Six by 2010, and for China and ASEAN as a whole by 2015. The Second CAFTA Expo at Nanning on 18–21 October 2005 provided yet another yardstick to assess the progress achieved as well as a platform from which to launch future practical measures to accelerate the realization of their joint endeavors to set up a super regional Free Trade Area of 1.85 billion ASEAN and Chinese consumers, and an ideal investment area covering the entire mainland China and all ASEAN countries. The Second Nanning Expo 2005, like its predecessor the year before, served as an effective tool: (1) to place goods and services available within the CHINA–ASEAN Greater Region on display at the exhibition pavilions; (2) to provide facilities and opportunities for the Business and Investment Summit meetings for traders, investors and members of the ASEAN Chamber of Commerce and their Chinese counterparts to gather together for closer consultation on the cultivation of their joint projects; and (3) to organize the CHINA–ASEAN Legal Affairs Forum for brainstorming sessions to work out practical ways and means to implement their combined plan of actions, notably to devise a functioning legal machinery to ensure further inter-regional economic integration. It is gratifying, at the end of the day, to be able to witness at close range the rebirth and phenomenal natural growth of a new breed of Chinese and ASEAN transnational legal scholars and practitioners actively at work. The heritage of ASEAN–Chinese legal scholarship is apparent and distinctive.
* M.A., D.Phil., D.C.L. (Oxon); Docteur en Droit (Paris); LL.M. (Harvard); of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law; Associate Dean and Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Law, Golden Gate University School of Law; Former ASEAN Secretary-General for Thailand; and Former Ambassador of Thailand (email: ssucharitkul{at}ggu.edu).