The 10-member ASEAN signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Transport Cooperation with China Saturday in Vientiane.

China's Minister of Communications Zhang Chunxian and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) signed the MOU.

Zhang said in an interview with Xinhua after the signing ceremony that with the signing, ASEAN and China will have a legally based medium-to-long-term cooperation partnership.

He said that the MOU covers ASEAN-China transport cooperation on infrastructure, transport facilitating, marine transport and marine affairs, capacity building and information sharing.

The minister said he believed that the MOU is a breakthrough for ASEAN-China transport cooperation as it not only lays down a legal base for launching future cooperative projects, but has a strong guiding role and high operationability.

He said, "The fundamental objective of the cooperation is to accelerate infrastructure linkages and enhance cross-border movement of goods and people, which in turn reinforces the establishment of an ASEAN-China free trade area as well as the synergy in seeking common prosperity for nearly 1.8 billion population with 1.2 trillion US dollar annual trade volume in the ASEAN countries and China."

He said, "We feel so much assured that the ASEAN-China transport cooperation is becoming more consolidated with every step forward and has constituted an essential part in building a partnership of mutual trust and practical cooperation between ASEAN and China."

The minister said it is the strong aspirations of the people of ASEAN and China in seeking cooperation for a win-win result.

He said China has over 100 land and river ports at different levels bordering with the ASEAN countries. The potential for further promoting transport cooperation is great.

Zhang said that the ASEAN-China cooperation has been fruitful in the past months.

He said the construction of Lao section of Kunming-Bangkok Highway started in April this year, with 30 million US dollars of investment from China.

He added that the Intergovernmental Agreement on Asian Highway Network covering 32 countries was concluded in Shanghai in April this year, to which some of the ASEAN countries have become parties.

The minister added that China's linkage with this road network accumulates a mileage of 26,000 kilometers, accounting for 20 percent of the total lengthen of the network.

He added that China is also stepping up the construction of highways to connect with this network.

The minister said China has provided 1 million US dollars financial assistance for the pre-feasibility study of the missing link of the Trans-Asian Railway inside Cambodia.

He believed that with the stable long-term cooperation framework and practical cooperative operations, ASEAN and China would surely have a great prospect for the future.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippine, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.