China-ASEAN trade grows robustly despite COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract : China's trade with the ASEAN stood at 2.51 trillion yuan (about 362 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months, up 6.6 percent year on year.

—
China’s trade with the ASEAN stood at 2.51 trillion yuan (about 362
billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months, up 6.6 percent year on
year.

—
The expansion in China-ASEAN trade has been partly buoyed by the
implementation of an upgraded China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA)
protocol since October 2019.

—
As ASEAN nations eyed recovering their economies hit by the pandemic,
Chinese e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com have provided the
businesses with access to one of the world’s largest markets.

— Besides traditional trade, China and ASEAN countries are also conducting high-tech industry cooperation.

Photo
taken on May 27, 2020 shows a container truck carrying Vietnamese
lychees exported to China at Kim Thanh II International Border Gate in
Vietnam’s northern Lao Cai province, which borders China. (VNA via Xinhua)

by Xinhua writers Chen Jian, Huang Shuo, Lin Hao

HONG
KONG, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — “I want more Chinese traders to come here to
buy and export our fresh, sweet and succulent dragon fruits,” Nguyen Huy
Phong, a 50-year-old farmer from Vietnam’s southern Binh Thuan
province, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

In
the first half of the year, China’s trade with Vietnam jumped 18.1
percent, pushing bilateral trade to the top slot among members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), data from China’s
General Administration of Customs showed.

In
addition, China’s trade with the ASEAN stood at 2.51 trillion yuan
(about 362 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months, up 6.6
percent year on year.

The
ASEAN remained China’s biggest trading partner during the same period,
accounting for 14.6 percent of its total foreign trade volume.

While
the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disruption in the global supply
chain, China-ASEAN trade relations “are being further boosted by great
efforts from two sides, including governments who are determined to find
measures to maintain trade flow and eliminate COVID-19’s impacts, and
the businesses themselves who are committed to the potential markets,”
said Vo Tri Thanh, former deputy head of Vietnam’s Central Institute for
Economic Management.

People package dragon fruits in the city of Buon Ma Thuot in Vietnam’s central highlands Dak Lak province on Aug. 12, 2020. (VNA via Xinhua)

FREE TRADE

“Multilateral
trade is still an irresistible trend,” said Azlimi Zakaria, consul
general of the Consulate General of Malaysia in Nanning, the capital of
China’s southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, adding that the
increasingly close economic and trade relations between ASEAN countries
and China remain vigorous through multilateralism and free trade.

The
expansion in China-ASEAN trade has been partly buoyed by the
implementation of an upgraded China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA)
protocol since October 2019, which has further facilitated agricultural
trade and brought dividends to CAFTA members.

“The
revised deal covering 11 countries with a population of around 2
billion people helps to simplify many procedures, including rules of
origin, currency, services, and investment,” Thanh said.

Founded
in 1967, ASEAN now groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

John
Tan, a coconut exporter based in Davao in the southern Philippines,
told Xinhua that he received orders for tropical fruits from China as
usual despite the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I’m
not short of orders, but I’m short of hands,” said Tan, president of
Eng Seng Food Products, adding that he did not have enough workers due
to COVID-19 lockdown measures.

“Even
under these circumstances, we are still managing to send about five to
six containers of young coconuts to China every week,” he added.

Workers box processed coconuts in Davao, southern Philippines, Aug. 26, 2020. (Xinhua)

During
the virtual Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
ministerial meeting on Thursday, ministers of ASEAN members, China,
Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand reaffirmed their
commitment to signing the deal at its upcoming November summit.

Initiated
by ASEAN in 2012, RCEP is a proposed FTA between the 10 ASEAN member
states and their six partners — China, Japan, South Korea, Australia,
New Zealand and India. In November, 15 participating countries of the
agreement concluded text-based negotiations and essentially all market
access issues at an RCEP summit in Thai capital Bangkok.

Federation
of Malaysian Manufacturers president Soh Thian Lai said it was
important for ASEAN nations, such as Malaysia, to commit itself to the
agreement in the interest of future economic development, especially in
facing the economic aftermath caused by COVID-19.

“I
believe the signing of such a mega FTA like RCEP will greatly
contribute to the region’s post-pandemic recovery and in creating
resilient supply chains,” he told Xinhua.

Cambodian
Commerce Ministry Secretary of State and Spokesman Seang Thay said the
RCEP will provide the participating countries with greater market
access, and through it, relations in economy, trade and investment
between the ASEAN and their partners will be further broadened.

“Once signed, the RCEP will be the world’s largest FTA by population. All countries will benefit from it,” he said.

The
RCEP accounts for 45 percent of the world population, 40 percent of
global trade and around one third of the world’s gross domestic product
(GDP).

Boxes of durians to be exported to China are put into a refrigerated
container at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia, June
18, 2019. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

DIGITAL COOPERATION

This
year is designated as the China-ASEAN Year of Digital Economy
Cooperation, and the pandemic has further highlighted the importance of
digital economy in economic recovery, job creation and improvement of
livelihood.

On
Aug. 18, China’s Guangxi and the ASEAN agreed to build the China-ASEAN
Digital Trade Center to boost digital economy cooperation.

Headquartered
in Nanning, the center is designated as a digital economy development
park, with facilities for digital creative industries, platform
operations, big data, and the internet of things, among others.

As
ASEAN nations eyed recovering their economies hit by the pandemic,
Chinese e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com have provided the
businesses with access to one of the world’s largest markets.

On
June 9, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Jurin
Laksanawisit helped sell nearly 5,000 durians and 20,000 coconuts to
Chinese consumers via a live-streaming sale on Alibaba’s Tmall.

A worker cleans a durian at a durian processing factory in Pahang, Malaysia, June 18, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei)

With
China’s appetite for the pungent “king of fruits” undiminished by the
pandemic, the Thai Commerce Ministry said durian sales to China have
secured 1.02 billion dollars in the first half of this year, up 140
percent year-on-year.

Since
June last year, Malaysia, also a major durian producer in Southeast
Asia, started exporting durian to China as frozen whole fruits, many
through e-commerce platforms. The Chinese market remains a great support
for Malaysian farmers during the time of economic recovery.

Lu
Yee Thing, a durian farm owner in Malaysia’s central Pahang state, told
Xinhua that durian shipments to China have increased to 50 percent of
the farm’s total exports.

“Many
Chinese consumers order our durians directly online,” he said, adding
“I’m very confident in future business, and I will expand planting areas
to meet the demand of the Chinese market.”

For
ASEAN, the digital economy is expected to increase from 1.3 percent of
GDP in 2015 to 8.5 percent by 2025, according to ASEAN Secretary-General
Lim Jock Hoi.

Aerial
photo taken on April 15, 2019 shows the Alliance Steel at the
Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park in Pahang, Malaysia. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei)

HIGH-TECH INDUSTRY, INVESTMENT

Besides traditional trade, China and ASEAN countries are also conducting high-tech industry cooperation.

The
China-ASEAN Information Harbor Co. Ltd., a Nanning-based info-tech
company, has been dedicated to China-ASEAN digital and information
industrial collaboration over the past few years.

Three
international communication submarine cables, 12 international
terrestrial optical cables, and 13 key communications nodes have been
built to link China and ASEAN nations, the company said.

Moreover,
China and ASEAN countries have cooperated in satellite navigation
before China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System was commissioned on
July 31.

China
has begun to provide navigation services to some ASEAN countries, and
will promote the socio-economic development of ASEAN nations, especially
in the fields of modern agriculture, digitization and intelligent
ports, said Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation
Office.

Relying
on each other’s advantages, governments and enterprises from China and
ASEAN nations have promoted and realized mutual investment.

The
Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) in Malaysia’s Pahang
state has been jointly developed by the two countries as a major project
under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

The
MCKIP and the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park, collectively
called the Twin Parks, have been identified by the Malaysian and Chinese
governments as iconic projects in their bilateral investment.

According
to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the accumulated two-way investment
between the ASEAN and China reached 236.91 billion dollars in 2019.  ■

(Xinhua
reporters Tao Jun in Hanoi, Mao Pengfei in Phnom Penh, Yang Ke, Yuan
Mengchen in Manila, Wang Jin in Bangkok, Pan Qiang and Huang Yaoteng in
Nanning also contributed to the story.)

(Video
reporters: Xia Peng, Lin Hao, Huang Yaoteng, Chen Jian, Huang Shuo, Tao
Jun, Mao Pengfei, Yang Ke, Yuan Mengchen, Wang Jin, Pan Qiang; Video
editor: Zhou Sa’ang)

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Source: China-ASEAN trade grows robustly despite COVID-19 pandemic