【答案解析】China and ASEAN countries are close and interdependent neighbors. We boast over one thousand years of traditional friendship and a long history of economic exchanges. To our delight, today, we are each other's first choice as a partner for building an economic community—China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (ETA). China- ASEAN trade has ushered in a golden age featuring unprecedented close and dynamic economic ties. The development of such economic ties has already proved and will continue to prove the shared need of both sides and beneficial to economic growth in East Asia and the world at large. // The past fifteen years have witnessed a huge increase in China-ASEAN trade volume, a rising proportion of the bilateral trade to our respective total foreign trade, a fast growth of mutual investment and more and more ASEAN projects undertaken by Chinese contractors. // 1. Bilateral trade has increased by large margins. The statistics from China's General Administration of Customs show that in 1978, China-ASEAN trade volume was only $ 859 million. By 1991, the figure has risen to $7.96 billion, an increase of 8 times over a span of 13 years. Over the 15 years from 1991 to 2005, the bilateral trade has jumped from $7.96 billion to $130.37 billion, an increase of 15 times with an average annual increase of 20%, which surpassed the increase rate of China and ASEAN's respective foreign trade over the same period. In the first half of 2006, China-ASEAN trade volume increased by 21.68% to $ 72.7 billion over the same period last year. // 2. China has shifted from trade surplus to trade deficit with its trade structure constantly optimized. In 1991, China-ASEAN trade volume accounted for 5.9% of China's total foreign trade volume. Over the last ten years and more, China's foreign trade volume has increased from $135.7 billion in 1991 to $1.4221 trillion in 2005, an increase of 9 times. China-ASEAN trade volume accounted for 9.2% of China's total foreign trade volume in 2005. // In 2005, China became the fourth largest trade partner of ASEAN, and ASEAN the fifth largest of China. In terms of countries rather than regions, China was the largest trade partner of Vietnam, the second largest of Myanmar, the third largest of Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, the fourth largest of Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia, and the fifth largest of Laos. Among China's top ten trade partners, Singapore ranked the seventh, and Malaysia the eighth. // China imported from ASEAN $ 3. 82 billion worth of products in 1991, and as much as $ 75 billion in 2005, an increase of nearly 19 times, making ASEAN China's third largest source of import. In 1991, China's export to ASEAN was $4.14 billion, and the figure reached $55.37 billion in 2005, up 12 times. China had a surplus of $ 320 million in its trade with ASEAN in 1991 and a deficit of $19. 63 billion in 2005. In 1991. China's trade with ASEAN was mainly in primary and textile products, while by 2005, the focus of trade has shifted to manufactured products with machinery and electronic products topping the list. // (From "China and ASEAN: A Summary of Economic and Trade Cooperation over the Past Fifteen Years" delivered by Xu Ningning, Executive Vice Secretary-general of China ASEAN Businese Council, at the China-ASEAN Summit Forum)