The 20th China-ASEAN Expo opened on Saturday in Nanning, the capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with nearly 2,000 enterprises in attendance.

This year's participation figure marks a 18.2-percent rise from 1,653 enterprises at last year's expo. Exhibitors in 2023 include 350 Global Fortune 500 and industry-leading companies, and delegations from over 40 countries and regions.

The exhibition area of this year's expo reached 102,000 square meters. During this year's event, 19 high-level forums and more than 70 economic and trade promotion activities will be held.

Over the past 20 years, the expo has achieved fruitful results with over 200 economic and trade activities held and more than 5,000 projects agreed upon. In the previous 19 expos, more than 1.1 million exhibitors and over 40,000 Chinese and foreign enterprises have attended.

Since the first China-ASEAN Expo was held in 2004, the event has become an important cooperation platform and has played a positive role in regional economic integration. In the past 20 years, the trade volume between China and ASEAN has increased by 16.8 times.

China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years, and both sides have been each other's top trading partners for three years in a row.

In the first half of this year, ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade in goods rising to 3.08 trillion yuan (about $420 billion). In 2022, bilateral trade volume reached $975.3 billion, up by 11.2 percent year on year and more than doubling from a decade ago.

As of July 2023, two-way cumulative investment surpassed $380 billion, and the number of direct investment enterprises set up in ASEAN countries reached over 6,500.

Themed "Work together for a harmonious home and a shared future – promoting high-quality development of the Belt and Road and building an epicentrum of growth," this year's expo will last until Tuesday.