Business leaders from China and economies involved in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to further strengthen cooperation at the upcoming 21st China-ASEAN Expo to be held from Sept 24 to 28 in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The expo will focus on the theme of advancing the building of version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and promoting regional high-quality development, the Ministry of Commerce said during a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

More than 3,000 companies are expected to attend the expo, which will see its total exhibition section reach nearly 200,000 square meters. Malaysia will serve as the country of honor for this year's event, said the Guangxi government.

"China and the ASEAN have been important partners, with broad common interests in sharing superlarge markets, leveraging complementary economic advantages and rationally allocating resource elements," said Li Fei, vice-minister of commerce.

"The scale of goods traded between the two sides has continued to expand, while services trade and mutual investments have been flourishing. China will continue to expand trading of advantageous agricultural and industrial products with the ASEAN, and actively increase the imports of characteristic products from the ASEAN," Li said.

He added that industrial and supply chains of the two sides have been deeply integrated, and the economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative have continued to strengthen cooperation.

China has been the ASEAN's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, and the ASEAN became China's top trading partner in 2020, surpassing the European Union. Last year, the trade value between China and the ASEAN reached $911.7 billion, said the Ministry of Commerce.

In particular, the value of bilateral trade between China and ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore exceeded $100 billion each last year.

In the first seven months of this year, the value of trade between China and ASEAN came in at $552 billion, up 7.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 15.8 percent of China's total two-way trade during the period.

This year, the expo will invite attendees from more countries outside the ASEAN region, such as the Gulf states. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization will attend the expo for the first time, the Guangxi government said.

During the expo, China will highlight cooperation with the ASEAN in emerging industries such as digital economy, new energy vehicles and photovoltaics.

In the past few years, some distinctive products of the ASEAN region have entered the China market through the expo, including Vietnamese coffee, Malaysian durians, Thai fragrant rice and Laotian beer.