A dialogue focusing on trade and investment between east China's Anhui Province and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) consulates in Shanghai was held Wednesday in Hefei, capital city of Anhui.

The event attracted nearly 200 attendees from home and abroad, including business representatives, Chinese government officials and diplomats from countries including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Hew Tse Hou, consul general of the Consulate General of Malaysia in Shanghai, said Anhui's economy has been developing rapidly in recent years and Malaysian companies have shown a great interest in its development.

"Our cooperation is focused on the manufacturing industry at the moment, but we hope to expand the cooperation with Anhui in the service industry such as tourism and education in the future," he said.

"We made an investment of 100 million yuan (about 14.77 million U.S. dollars) in Thailand in 2018. Our factory producing rubber products is scheduled to operate in early 2021," said Xia Yongqiang, general affairs manager of Zhongding Precision Technology (Thailand) Co., Ltd. "I hope to enhance our relationship with Thai officials by attending the dialogue."

ASEAN became China's biggest trading partner in the first half of this year, accounting for 14.7 percent of the nation's total foreign trade volume. China's trade with ASEAN stood at 2.09 trillion yuan in the first six months, up 5.6 percent year on year, according to the General Administration of Customs.