Mr Qu Guilin, Executive Director of APFNet, met with the delegates from the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) Secretariat, led byMs Huang Yuan, Vice Secretary General at the APFNet Secretariat in Beijing on 31 July 2014.

The two sides introduced the work of each organization and explored potential cooperation. The CAEXPO was proposed at the 7th China-ASEAN Summit on 8th October, 2003, by Premier Wen Jiabao of the People's Republic of China and it has been held annually in Nanning, Guangxi, China since 2004.The CAEXPO Secretariat has been the host of the 10 past sessions of CAEXPO and also the coming 11thin this September. The CAEXPO plays an active role in promoting trade and investment between China and ASEAN members as well as high-level dialogue on agriculture, transportation, environmental protection, culture and many other fields. Since 2010,four sessions ofForest and Wood Products Exhibition have been held to mobilize the Chinese and ASEAN forestry enterprises to expand cooperation at the forestry front.

After listening to a brief introduction to APFNet, Ms Huang extended her invitation to APFNet to visit the expo and also her wish for collaboration, as APFNet has been established in promoting sustainable forest management across the Asia-Pacific region and can invite forestry authorities from the ASEAN economies to attend the expo. With their participation, the CAEXPO Secretariat expected to make the expo more influential in the forest sector and facilitate forestry cooperation among China and ASEAN economies.

Mr Qu Guilin stated that the CAEXPO is quite an important platform onpromoting China-ASEAN collaboration and an opportunity for APFNet to showcase its progress.He agreed to explore opportunities tocooperate with the CAEXPO Secretariat in the future.