Myanmar's second top leader Vice Senior-General Maung Aye left Nay Pyi Taw Monday for Beijing to begin a six-day official visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping.

Aimed at promoting neighborly, friendly and cooperative ties with China, Maung Aye, who is Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), is paying his third visit to China in six years.

Maung Aye, is also Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, traveled to China in August 2003 and in April 2006.

There were also exchange of visits between other leaders of the two countries over the last two years. In January 2007, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese National People's Congress Standing Committee Li Tieying visited Myanmar, while SPDC Member General Thura Shwe Mann and Prime Minister General Thein Sein visited China in the same year.

In 2008, Thein Sein attended the Beijing Olympic Games, while Shwe Mann toured China again.

In March this year, Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited Myanmar, during which four documents were signed.

In April the same year, Thein Sein attended the "Boao Forum for Asia" in Boao, southern China's Hainan province.

On that occasion, Thein Sein also met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and the two leaders discussed fruitful results of bilateral economic cooperation, oil and gas, energy, electric power, rail transportation, agriculture and human resource sectors.

Over his five-day China trip, Thein Sein also met a number of Chinese industrialists and entrepreneurs investing in Myanmar and had discussions with them on bilateral economic cooperation.

According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar trade amounted to 2.626 billion US dollars in 2008, up 26.4 percent. Of the total, China's export to Myanmar took 1.978 billion dollars.

Up to the end of 2008, China's contracted investment in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which that in mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars.

China has risen from the 6th position to the 4th in Myanmar's foreign investment line-up.