Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian announced China's free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would come.

On Thursday, Huang said that "with the substantial conclusion of the version 3.0 China-ASEAN free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations," China "looks forward to deeper cooperation in the digital economy, green economy, and supply chain connectivity."

"The version 3.0 will be, you know, signed officially in the near future," he said.

"In Q1, ASEAN remained China's top trading partner, with trade rising to 1.71 trillion yuan ($234.21 billion), accounting for 16.6 percent of China's total foreign trade," he said.

Lyu Daliang, General Administration of Customs of China noted that "in Q1, manufactured goods made up 90.1 percent of China-ASEAN trade".

He said "China's exports to ASEAN, such as flat-panel display modules, auto parts and lithium-ion batteries, all increased over 20 percent."

"China and ASEAN are committed to regional economic integration, with closely linked industrial chains driving rapid growth in the import and export of upstream and downstream products," he said.

"Imports from ASEAN, including components from automatic data processing equipment, printed circuits and textile raw materials, also continued to grow," he added.

Lyu said "China and the 10 ASEAN countries have a combined population of over 2 billion, accounting for about a quarter of the world's total."

"Our continued openness, integration and joint development have unlocked market potentials and set an example for cooperation amid headwinds to globalization. In Q1, China imported agricultural products worth 52.65 billion yuan from ASEAN, up 13.8 percent and exported 37.92 billion yuan's worth, up 1.4 percent," he said.

He also noted that "infrastructure connectivity between China and ASEAN has progressed steadily, making trade smoother and turning resource advantages into tangible economic results."

"In Q1, China's trade with ASEAN through rail, road, sea and air transport grew by 37 percent, 23.2 percent, 5.8 percent and 16.4 percent respectively. Since its launch over three years ago, the China - Laos Railway has run over 50,000 freight trains, and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in western China has enabled seamless rail-sea intermodal transport, allowing for efficient transfers," Lyu added. Robina Asido/DMS