NANNING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The 15th China-ASEAN Expo is scheduled to be held from Sept. 12 to 15 in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the organizer announced Tuesday.

The theme of this year's expo is "Jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the China-ASEAN community of innovation." Cambodia is this year's country of honor.

Wang Lei, secretary-general of the expo, said more countries, especially those along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, will be invited to attend the expo to create more business opportunities.

Guo Chuanwei, an official with the Ministry of Commerce, said he hopes that China and the ASEAN members can organize more top-level companies to attend the expo to deepen cooperation.

Initiated in 2004, the expo is an important platform to promote trade and relations between China and ASEAN.

China is ASEAN's largest trade partner, and ASEAN is China's third largest partner. Trade between the two rose 13.8 percent to 514.8 billion U.S. dollars last year.