President reaffirms ties with ASEAN
Xi’s message at CAEXPO hailing deeper cooperation in economic growth, pandemic fight inspires confidence
China and ASEAN are committed to jointly build a community with a shared future as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of dialogue relations, a recent international trade event heard.
“Since China and ASEAN established dialogue relations 30 years ago, the all-around cooperation between the two sides has been continuously deepened as they became each other’s largest trading partners with the most vibrant cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sept 10.
The two sides have been working jointly to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the essence of a community with a shared future, Xi said in a congratulatory letter to the 18th China-ASEAN Expo and ChinaASEAN Business and Investment Summit.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This year the economic and trade departments of the 10 ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretariat served as co-sponsors of CAEXPO together with China’s Ministry of Commerce. It is organized by the Guangxi government.
Themed “Sharing Opportunities Created by the New Land-Sea Corridor, Building the China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future”, this year’s expo attracted enterprises from over 40 countries and regions with a total exhibition area of 102,000 square meters. It was held both online and offline on Sept 10-13 in Nanning, capital of South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
A total of 179 deals worth a recordhigh combined value of over 300 billion yuan ($46.59 billion) were signed during the expo, an increase of 13.7 percent over the previous edition.
Xi said China is willing to strengthen the strategic mutual trust with ASEAN, deepen cooperation in the economy, trade, fighting the pandemic and other areas.
China has remained ASEAN’s biggest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. In 2020, the regional bloc also became China’s biggest trading partner.
Xi called on the two sides to promote the early implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative and a higher level of strategic partnership, jointly maintaining the good momentum of shared prosperity and development in the region.
The RCEP agreement, signed last November, is a trade deal between the 10 ASEAN member states and its free-trade agreement partners China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Pakistan President Arif Alvi, Myanmar Minister of Commerce Pwint San, and ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi also delivered their remarks at the opening ceremony.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan said China will contribute a further $10 million to the ASEAN-China Cooperation Fund this year to promote people-to-people exchanges and deepen cooperation.
The fund, established in 1997, aims to support activities to promote collaboration
between China and ASEAN in different areas including agriculture, information and communications technology, human resources development, investment, trade, tourism, education and the environment.
Joining the expo via video, leaders from ASEAN countries shared their determination to cultivate a closer community with a shared future for the two sides.
“The Lao side believes that the BRI is an important guide for cooperation and has effectively promoted ASEANChina trade and investment cooperation, and facilitated the implementation of the RCEP agreement and the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor,” said Phankham Viphavanh, prime minister of Laos, the Country of Honor of this year’s CAEXPO. He was referring to the trade and logistics passage that connects western China to ASEAN countries.
Noting the China-Laos railway will be officially opened on Dec 2, the Lao national day, he said the landmark project under the BRI is a good example of advancing the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries in the new era and building a Laos-China community with a shared future.
Encouraged by Xi’s congratulatory letter, analysts and business leaders expressed more confidence about the prospects for China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation.
Zhang Jianping, director-general of the China Center for Regional Economic Cooperation, which operates under the Ministry of Commerce, said ASEAN will continue to be China’s largest trading partner, and its contribution to the nation’s inbound foreign direct investment and outbound direct investment will also increase rapidly.
“The two sides have even greater cooperation potential in areas such as infrastructure, energy and resources, agriculture, manufacturing and the modern services industry,” Zhang said.
China and ASEAN will become the largest and most energetic emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region, and the integration of the regional economy will be accelerated, driven by the continuously strengthening bilateral economic and trade cooperation, he added.
Zhu Jianhe, chairman of Nanningbased Guangxi Beibu Gulf Investment Group Co Ltd, said the company will invest more in the construction of transportation infrastructure at Chinese border ports, as well as in improving the capabilities of road transportation and border port customs clearance.
As a result, the company aims to contribute more to the growing connectivity between China and ASEAN member countries, Zhu said. The State-owned company is the largest investment and operation services
company involved in inland road and border ports in Guangxi.
Dar Wong, vice-president of the Singapore chapter of the ASEAN-China Commerce Association, a business advocacy organization in Bangkok, said Xi’s letter sends “a very positive message” about the trajectory of China-ASEAN relations.
While the RCEP will help boost trade among participating countries, the BRI will help logistics and transport infrastructure reach a new milestone in Southeast Asia, he said.
The CAEXPO hosted 26 high-level forums and 148 economic and trade promotion activities. A series of celebratory events were held to mark the 30th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relations.
Attending the Communist Party of China in Dialogue with Political Parties of Southeast Asian and South Asian Countries, Sehar Kamran, coordinator of Pakistan Peoples Party’s Central Research, Communication and Social Media Cell, said China has truly transformed geo-economics globally through the BRI.
“The PPP leadership recognizes the strides that China has peacefully made in the world through the Belt and Road Initiative and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, and realizes its potential to uplift millions of people from poverty through these projects,” she said.
During the 9th Forum on ChinaASEAN Technology Transfer and
Collaborative Innovation, Li Ping, a member of the CPC Leading Group of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, said a technology transfer and coordination network connecting relevant institutions and companies in the region was formed after the China-ASEAN Technology Transfer Center was established eight years ago.
Indonesia’s Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi, speaking at the 2021 China-ASEAN Silk Road E-Commerce Forum, said digital trade plays an increasingly important role in ASEAN’s economy, with the sector accounting for 7 percent of the region’s GDP in 2020.
Noting e-commerce businesses in Indonesia and other ASEAN countries have received direct investment worth billions of dollars from Chinese companies such as Alibaba, JD, and Tencent, Lutfi said the fruitful cooperation in areas including e-commerce is a result of the interdependence between China and ASEAN.
During the China-ASEAN Business Leaders Forum and Special Meeting on the 30th Anniversary of the China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations, participants welcomed the launch of an initiative that aims to promote joint consultations, contributions and sharing of the benefits of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor among business communities of China and the ASEAN.
The CAEXPO also witnessed the launch of the Nanning Initiative on Jointly Facilitating the Early Entry into Force of RCEP, the China-ASEAN Trade Index, and the China-ASEAN Meteorological Development Index Report on Laos, among others.
Speaking at the RCEP Economic and Trade Cooperation Business Summit, ASEAN Secretariat’s Lim said signatory countries need to ensure the timely entry into force of the RCEP agreement to reap the benefits.
“China has set an example as one of the first signatories that ratified the RCEP agreement. And I hope that other signatories would soon follow suit,” he said.
Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, told China Daily it is important for China and Southeast Asia to make the RCEP succeed so it can serve as a model on how free trade can enhance common prosperity.
Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in the Philippines, said Xi’s letter highlights the continuation of stronger ChinaASEAN diplomatic ties and trade.
He said China is a major source, supplier and donor of COVID-19 vaccines to ASEAN and that mass inoculations are “important for ASEAN’s economic recovery from the pandemic, and will (help) sustain long-term economic growth, development, and prosperity in the region”.
Chea Munyrith, president of the Cambodian Chinese Evolution Researcher Association, said China has been a good neighbor and friend of ASEAN over the past 30 years.
The 19th CAEXPO is preliminarily scheduled for Sept 16-19 next year with Malaysia selected as the Country of Honor.