China has remained good momentum in developing economic ties with other Asian countries in 2011 and is ready to strengthen cooperation with them to achieve common development, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said on Sunday.

Liu made the remarks when responding to Xinhua reporter's question on China's role in promoting Asian countries' economic growth and cooperation.

"Currently international financial crisis continues to further impact on world economy and the future is not yet promising," Liu said, "Any region or country would not be able to stay unaffected without joint efforts of cooperation and progress with others."

Liu pointed out that China has remained good momentum of trade development with Asian countries with a total volume of 965.2 billion U.S. dollars from Jan. to Nov. in 2011, an increase by 21 percent from the same period of the previous year. "China imported 530.1 billion U.S. dollars of commodities from Asian countries and did an export of 435.1 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year, an increase by 18.7 and 23.9 percent respectively year on year," he said.

"Also in the same period, China's trade deficit with Asian countries was around 95 billion U.S. dollars," he added, "China has remained the biggest exporter to Asian countries and the biggest trading partner with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and India and improved its trading structure with Asian partners."

Liu said China has increased its investment in Asian countries rapidly with 18.03 billion U.S. dollars in non-financial investment as of Nov. 2011. China has become the biggest foreign investor for Myanmar, Cambodia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Mongolia.

China will establish an economic and trade zone in each ASEAN countries to enhance cooperation with clustering investment, Liu added.

Liu hailed the smooth advancement of the free trade zone construction between China and ASEAN countries since 2010 with a conspicuous increasing flow of capital, resources, techniques and human resources.

He disclosed that the ASEAN has become the third largest trading partner of China in 2011 with bilateral total trade volume hitting 328.965 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months, an increase of 25.1 percent from the same period of the previous year.

China and Asian countries have strengthened financial and banking cooperation, signing agreements on bilateral currency swap with Thailand, Pakistan and Mongolia in 2011 and each involved 70 billion, 10 billion and 5 billion yuan. Bilateral currency swap volume between China and the Republic of Korea had expanded to 360 billion yuan in 2011, Liu said.

He pointed out that the total sum of bilateral currency swap between China and Asian courtiers has reached 775 billion yuan, and Chinese financial institutions have established branches in Laos, Singapore, Pakistan and India.

Liu said China has vigorously carried out cooperation with Asian countries in high-tech, new energy resources, energy efficiency and environment protection.

China has also expanded assistance to Asian countries. The Chinese government provided 30 million yuan worth of goods as emergency aid and 20,000 tonnes of fuel oil of grant aid to Japan following the massive quake in March 2011. The Chinese government alao offered timely assistance in cash and materials to Thailand and Cambodia after serious floods hit the countries. China also extended humanitarian aid to other Asian countries struck by natural disasters and provided humanitarian aids and technical training to other Asian countries to help promote their development, Liu said.

"Furthermore, China has committed to promoting infrastructure construction with Asian countries on road, railway, telecommunication and ports," Liu said, "China has added 10 billion U.S. dollars of loans to year 2009's 15 billion U.S. dollars of loans to the ASEAN, which will go to infrastructure projects and benefit all ASEAN countries."