China’s first ambassador to ASEAN, Yang Xiuping, presented her credentials to ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan at the ASEAN Secretariat’s headquarters in the capital city of Indonesia on August 6.

During talks following the credentials presentation, Surin and Yang pledged to work closely to strengthen the strategic partnership relations between the Southeast Asian bloc and China.

Yang, who previously severed as ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, expressed her honour to assume the post of China’s first resident ambassador to ASEAN and emphasised that her diplomatic mission will work to fortify ASEAN-China strategic partnership.

“The diplomatic mission will serve as a bridge of communication, cooperation, a messenger of friendship, bringing ASEAN – China strategic partnership to a new height”, said Yang.

On his part, Surin said that ASEAN encourages China to pour more investments into ASEAN.

Both the Secretary-General and the ambassador showed optimism on the possibility of raising the two-way trade to over 500 billion USD in 2015.

According to statistics from the ASEAN Secretariat, China remains the biggest trade partner of ASEAN. In 2011, bilateral trade turnover stood at 280.4 billion USD and China ’s direct investment in ASEAN reached 5.9 billion USD.