Making ASEAN China's first trading partner to exceed 1,000 billion USD

On the morning of September 17, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders and heads of delegations from ASEAN and international countries attended the opening ceremony of the 20th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the 20th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) in Nanning City, Guangxi, China. CAEXPO and CABIS were held under the chairmanship of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanked Premier Li Qiang and the Government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for the warm, respectful, and thoughtful reception in the beautiful "green city" of Nanning.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that the 20 years of CAEXPO and CABIS are important and prestigious events on economic , trade and investment cooperation between the ASEAN - China business community, and have become symbols and leading flags of economic, trade and investment cooperation between China and ASEAN.

The past 20 years have witnessed remarkable progress in ASEAN-China economic cooperation. Bilateral trade has increased 13 times from just 78.2 billion USD in 2003 to 975.6 billion USD in 2022, making China and ASEAN each other's largest trading partners and leading investment partners.

ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, always acknowledge China’s important contributions to promoting cooperation and common prosperity in the region. Vietnam supports cooperation and assistance in the spirit of openness, sincerity, trust, equality, and connecting the Belt and Road for the common prosperity of the peoples in the region and the world.

The Prime Minister emphasized that ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, always acknowledge China's important contributions to promoting cooperation and common prosperity in the region.

In the current context, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that ASEAN and China need to strengthen trade and investment cooperation, persistently expand the spirit of cooperation, goodwill and cooperation interests, and strive not to politicize economic, scientific and technological activities.

Regarding the goals for the coming time, the Prime Minister suggested that the Chinese Government, the ASEAN governments and the Guangxi government: Strongly promote balanced and sustainable bilateral trade development, striving to make ASEAN China's first trade partner to exceed 1,000 billion USD.

The Prime Minister also suggested that the parties continue to open markets; fight against protectionism; implement free trade commitments at the highest level such as in RCEP, CAFTA, coordinate to build a chain from raw material areas to production centers and product consumption systems of each country, cooperate to improve the capacity to adapt to new standards, new tastes, green products; promote cooperation in science - technology, innovation.

Vietnam wishes to continue working with China and ASEAN countries to promptly complete negotiations to upgrade version 3.0 of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement; upgrade road and railway infrastructure connectivity; and pilot the expansion of the smart border gate model to better meet the investment, business, trade, culture and tourism needs of the business community and people of each country.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Heads of Delegations attended the opening ceremony.

At the same time, promote strategic connectivity for development, both hard and soft infrastructure. With the huge demand for infrastructure investment from ASEAN countries, the parties need to promote high-quality, harmonious, mutually beneficial connectivity between the “Belt and Road” and the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific Cooperation, as the common perception of leaders at the recent ASEAN-China Summit.

It is necessary to strengthen transport infrastructure connectivity, coordinate forms of transport, especially railways and roads; spread and connect more widely to ASEAN countries as well as through China to bring ASEAN goods to Europe, Central Asia, etc. In this process, Vietnam supports the promotion of Guangxi's role as a bridge, supporting Guangxi to realize the vision and three major positions that the Chinese Government has established, especially becoming "China's gateway to ASEAN".

The Prime Minister also emphasized the need to strengthen people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in culture, tourism, and aviation, striving to restore tourism cooperation as soon as possible to the level before the Covid-19 pandemic; expand tourism by car, electric vehicle, etc. At the same time, promote cooperation in emerging fields, creating new growth drivers such as green economy, digital economy, circular economy, new materials, sharing economy, etc. The ASEAN and Chinese business communities proactively seek to learn, exploit, and help each other to make the most of opportunities from CAEXPO and CABIS, turning potential and cooperation opportunities into concrete results and products.

Gia Phat

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/dua-asean-tro-thanh-doi-tac-thuong-mai-dau-tien-cua-trung-quoc-vuot-muc-1000-ty-usd-post264975.html