Free Trade Negotiations

amount of transfer payment will also be properly maintained.

China is willing to work with ASEAN to conclude the negotiations for version 3.0 of the ChinaASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) as soon as possible, Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said on January 31.

China aims to further upgrade the liberalization of trade and investment with ASEAN, based on the existing China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Wang said at the opening ceremony of the fifth round of negotiations in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

The RCEP, comprised of 15 Asia-Pacific countries, is the world’s largest free trade deal. The countries are the 10 ASEAN members and five of their largest trading partners: China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Wang noted that China is also willing to expand practical cooperation with ASEAN in such emerging areas as the trade of intermediate goods, digital trade and cross-border e-commerce.

The round of negotiations ran from January 29 to February 2, with nearly 400 officials from both sides attending.

Individual Businesses

A total of 124 million individually owned businesses had been registered in China by the end of last year, accounting for 67.4 percent of business entities nationwide, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said on January 31.

These businesses provided employment for nearly 300 million people in China, Ren Duanping, an official with the SAMR, said at a press conference.

About 22.58 million such businesses were newly registered in 2023, representing a year-on-year expansion of 11.4 percent, according to Ren.

The steady development of individually owned businesses has helped sustain the hustle and bustle on the streets and maintain the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of families, demonstrating the strong vitality and resilience of the Chinese economy, Ren said.