The year 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN. Looking back on this year, bilateral economic and trade cooperation continues to deepen, economic integration deepens, and multilateral cooperation has unleashed vigorous vitality.This year, China and ASEAN established a comprehensive strategic partnership, becoming a new milestone in the history of bilateral relations; the China-Laos railway operation, further smooth the logistics channel between China and ASEAN; the trade volume is expected to reach a record high in 2021.
Today, China-ASEAN relations have become the most meaningful and dynamic group of relations in the ASEAN partnership and the dialogue partnership, with broad prospects for development.
The partnership is getting closer:
In November 2021, China-ASEAN relations were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership, which is the depth and breadth of China-ASEAN relations over the past 30 years, reflects the healthy development of China-ASEAN relations, and will further strengthen and promote bilateral future cooperation.
On 1 January 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) officially came into force.The entry into force of RCEP will enable the China-Aean comprehensive strategic partnership and inject new impetus into regional and world peace, stability, prosperity and development.
The rapid developing trade and investment relationship between China and ASEAN has injected vitality into the development of bilateral relations.From 1991 to 2020, the bilateral trade volume between China and ASEAN has increased from less than US $8 billion to US $684.6 billion, expanding more than 80-fold.Since 2009, China has been the ASEAN's largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years; in 2020, ASEAN became China's largest trading partner for the first time.According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, in the first 11 months of 2021, ASEAN continued to be China's largest trading partner. The total trade value between China and ASEAN was 5.11 trillion yuan, up 20.6% year on year, accounting for 14.4% of China's total foreign trade.It is expected that the trade volume between China and ASEAN will reach another record high in 2021.
Thanks to the economic integration of ASEAN and the lead of China and ASEAN in promoting economic integration, the whole economic integration of East Asia has achieved continuous development, which has not only promoted the economic growth in East Asia, but also played a supporting role for the world economic growth.
Regional trade is even more convenient:
The reason for the rapid growth of trade between China and ASEAN stems from the deepening economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN over the past 30 years, especially the signing of China into free trade agreements with ASEAN, which has accelerated the opening of markets to each other and promoted the development of regional trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.
The institutional dividends of free trade agreements are obvious.According to China's statistics, since the 11 years since the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone, more than 90% of the goods between the two sides can enjoy zero tariff treatment, and China's imports from ASEAN account for about half of all imports.
The effective implementation of the RCEP will inject new strength into the cooperation between China and ASEAN, further promote the integrated development of the industrial chains between China and ASEAN, reduce regional trade barriers, promote cross-border trade and investment, and inject new impetus into the regional economic recovery.The RCEP rule of origin accumulation contributes to promoting trade in intermediate products and stabilizing and strengthening regional supply chains, which is a win-win outcome for both China and ASEAN.The comprehensive effect of RCEP, especially the introduction of higher standards in the areas of competition policy, intellectual property rights and transparency, will provide a better institutional cooperation environment for Chinese and ASEAN country enterprises to invest in the region, and will promote the high-quality development of each other's trade and investment cooperation.
The China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement was signed on 12 October 2020 and came into force on 1 January 2022.In terms of trade in goods, China gives Cambodia a zero tariff ratio of items of 97.53% on trade in goods, while Cambodia gives China a zero tariff ratio of 90%.Despite the challenge of COVID-19, the trade volume between China and Cambodia will still exceed US $10 billion in 2021, achieving the target set by the two countries two years ahead of schedule.That number is expected to continue to grow after the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement comes into force.
In 2021, under the winds of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the bilateral cooperation agreements between China and Singapore increased, a new seven-year high.In December 2021, at the annual meeting of the Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation, the government departments, enterprises and institutions of China and Singapore signed 14 memoranda of understanding and cooperation agreements after the meeting, with the largest number since 2014.In the bilateral cooperation agreement, there are both connectivity projects such as new international land and sea trade channels, and also cooperation in digital fields such as blockchain.
Logistics channels are more smooth:
ASEAN is an important area of the "Belt and Road" initiative, and the new land-sea channel for international trade is the product of jointly building the "Belt and Road".In 2020, the LMC Leaders' Meeting adopted a statement on the docking and cooperation between the LMC and the new international land-sea trade channel.The construction of economic corridors in some Southeast Asian countries is also combined with new land and sea corridors for international trade, such as the construction of economic corridors between China and Vietnam, the economic corridors between China and Laos, and the construction of economic corridors between China and Myanmar.
In particular, the China-Laos railway project was put into operation on December 3,2021.After the operation of the China-Laos railway, passengers can reach about 10 hours from Kunming to Vientiane.Laos, which had only had 3.5 kilometers of railway, has since entered the era of railway transportation.Now, in a month after the China-Laos Railway has been opened and operated, sending 670,000 passengers, 380 cargo trains and 170,000 tons of goods. The report card of the "full moon" is impressive.The China-Laos railway has not only accelerated the formation of a new logistics channel between China and ASEAN, but also played a positive role in improving the travel conditions of the Chinese and Laos people and promoting the construction of the China-Laos economic corridor. It will also further enhance their trade and investment momentum within the framework of the RCEP agreement.It is expected that the RCEP will grow steadily as the railway freight volume takes effect.
Digital cooperation is even deeper:
In recent years, digital cooperation between China and ASEAN countries has been continued to deepen and promoted local economic and social development.More and more Chinese science and technology enterprises have entered the ASEAN market, playing an important role in improving local research and development capacity, industrial upgrading and improving people's livelihood.For example, in April 2021, Tencent Cloud's first data center in Jakarta was officially put into operation, and the company also plans to open a second data center in Indonesia to help local enterprises fully tap the potential of cloud computing and support the growing demand for cloud services in Indonesia and Asia.
At the 24th China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting, held on 26 October 2021, the Joint Statement of China-ASEAN on Cooperation in Supporting the ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Recovery Framework was adopted.The Joint statement stressed the strengthening of bilateral cooperation in digital transformation.Jointly formulated the Action Plan for Implementing the China-ASEAN Digital Economic Partnership (2021-2025), Strengthen cooperation under the ASEAN Digital Master Plan 2025; Work together to strengthen digital connectivity, Supporting efforts to bridge the digital divide; Strengthen cooperation in e-commerce and the digital economy, Support the implementation of the Implementation Plan of the ASEAN E-commerce Agreement (2021-2025), Strengthen the development of digital skills and networks in micro-scale, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME); Explore cooperation in financial technology, green financing, and regional payment connectivity; Actively promote distance education and telemedicine, Develop a digital economy and society that are innovative, sustainable and inclusive of socially vulnerable groups, Bridge the digital divide; Work together to expand practical cooperation in cyber security and digital governance; Effectively implement the Leaders' Statement of the China-ASEAN Smart Cities Cooperation Initiative, We will support China's active participation in the ASEAN Smart City Network (ASCN).
In the future, China will also work with ASEAN to launch the construction of the 3.0 version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone to enhance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.This is not only out of realistic requirements, but also through innovation.The construction of the 3.0 version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone will also lead to the upgrading of the free trade zones in the region.The two sides will further support enhancing the resilience and sustainability of regional supply chains, encourage the development of inclusive cooperation platforms, make use of the potential for technological progress, foster new growth drivers, and jointly address common challenges such as COVID-19 and climate change.
