AKARTA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) jointly announced in November last year to elevate their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and ASEAN's close ties with China have effectively promoted the bloc's economic development, said an Indonesian entrepreneur.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, General Chairman of the Indonesian Chinese Entrepreneur Association Abdul Alek Soelystio said the China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership represents closer, higher-level and wider scope cooperation between the two sides.

"The cooperation between China and ASEAN will not be limited to the field of goods trade, and will be expanded to closer and more professional cooperation on service trade in the future," the entrepreneur said.

In his perspective, China has effectively promoted ASEAN's economic development through the Belt and Road Initiative, global cooperation on industrial chain and supply chain, as well as various favorable policies provided by the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA).

Having advantages in developing tropical agriculture, ASEAN hopes to conduct more profound cooperation with China in this field so as to promote fine processing of products, and the efficiency of international logistics and cold-chain distribution, he said.

Source: Xinhua