NANNING — The 14th China-ASEAN Expo has been scheduled from Sept 12 to 15 in Nanning, capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, local authorities announced on March 13.

This year’s expo will highlight the theme of “jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and boosting regional economic integration through tourism,” said Wang Lei, secretary-general of the expo, at a conference of senior officials from China and ASEAN.

Brunei will be the country of honor this year and will send more than 100 business representatives to the expo.

Tutiaty Abd Wahab, deputy permanent secretary at Prime Minister’s Office of Brunei, believes the expo will boost the bilateral trade between China and Brunei.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, and is China-ASEAN tourism cooperation year. China will take this opportunity to boost cooperation with ASEAN, said Chen Huaming, an official with the Ministry of Commerce.

Initiated in 2004, the expo is important in trade and relations between China and ASEAN.

China is ASEAN’s largest trade partner. Mutual trade volume was nearly $472 billion in 2015.