Even though ASEAN-China cooperation was formalized in 1996, substantive cooperation only picked up pace in 2001 when the leaders of ASEAN and China endorsed a proposal for a framework on economic cooperation and to establish a free trade area (FTA) in ten years as well as identified five priority areas to move cooperation. This was in the areas of agriculture, information technology, human resource development (HRD) , muturd investments and Mekong cooperation.