Bilateral trade between China and Vietnam is expected to reach US$15 billion by 2010, a target set by leaders of both countries in 2006, if the current growth momentum remains, said Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng on Sunday.

Gao said bilateral investment and trade cooperation has been expanding rapidly. Last year the two-way trade reached US$9.95 billion, up 21.4 percent over the previous year. China has been the top trading partner of Vietnam for three consecutive years.

In the first eight months this year, trade between the two countries soared to US$9.1 billion, a hefty increase of 46.2 percent year-on-year, Gao said at a Vietnam-China forum on investment and business operation, held in the southern China city of Nanning.

By the end of 2006, China had launched 407 direct investment projects in Vietnam, with a total contractual value of US$1.07 billion. Chinese companies contracted US$5.6 billion worth of construction projects in Vietnam, with a combined turnover of US$1.92 billion, said Gao.

In another development on Sunday, the Myanmar federation of industry and commerce said here that the country's trade with China amounted to US$1.46 billion last year, up 20.73 percent over 2005.

China is now Myanmar's sixth largest direct investment source country and has invested US$475 million in 27 projects in the Southeast Asian country, the federation said.

According to figures provided by the federation, business people from 29 countries and regions across the world had invested US$14.44 billion in 409 projects in the country up to February this year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2007)