2016年CRI China-ASEAN cooperation will benefit Thailand as well as surrounding nations: Thai expert

Chinese Premier 1 Li Keqiang is heading China's delegation 2 to this year's China-ASEAN and ASEAN+3 sessions in Vientiane.

This year's sessions come amid tensions in the South China Sea, as well as political changes within a few of the ASEAN countries.

Kitti Prasirtsuk, Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies of Thammasat University in Thailand, says he believes this year's meetings in Laos are an opportunity for China and ASEAN to find more common ground, particularly in trade and investment.

"The summits will enhance bilateral 3 exchanges between China and ASEAN, especially at a time when China has proposed its important 'One Belt and One Road Initiative'. China also contributes a lot to the establishment of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism 4. I think the potentials for regional cooperation are huge in many aspects."

China is currently ASEAN's largest trading partner, while ASEAN, as a group, is China's 3rd largest, behind the EU and the United States.

The annual China-ASEAN sessions are designed to try to allow the 10 countries which make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to speak with a collective voice to China.

But Kitti Prasirtsuk says ASEAN leaders, including from his home country of Thailand, are also hoping to promote their own individual agendas.

"Thailand has been taking great efforts to attract industrial investment, and also aim to become a production center of ASEAN and form a complete production and marketing 5 network. The country is also implementing 6 the strategic plan of 'Thailand 4.0' to upgrade its economy and improve its industrial development level. All those projects require exchanges with China to broaden the cooperation channel for a win-win result which could also benefit surrounding countries."

Official stats show that around 4.9 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand through the first half of this year, accounting 7 for nearly 30 percent of all tourist traffic into the country.

Thai officials say they hope to have 10-million Chinese tourists visit Thailand before the year is out.

Beyond economics, Kitti Prasirtsuk says this week's sessions in Laos also provide an opportunity for both China and ASEAN to create more social ties.

"In terms of education, though there are a huge amount of Chinese students studying in Thailand, I believe the room for further cooperation is still large. One thing I urge more attention is that the exchange level should not be only confined to students, but also teachers from both countries. I suggest that the cooperation between both teachers will help them learn from each other's different educational perspective and deepen their acknowledge on each other."

The China-ASEAN, as well as the ASEAN+3 meetings, which include China, Japan and South Korea, are taking place this Wednesday and Thursday in Vientiane.

A number of other countries, including Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand are also attending this week's meetings.

For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.