China, ASEAN Economic, Trade Ties Speed Up

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 18, 2002

China, ASEAN Economic, Trade Ties Speed Up

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China-ASEAN (the Association of South-East Asian Nations) economic and trade ties have hit the fast lane since the Framework Agreement on China-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation was signed last November, with a proposed free trade area involving 1.7 billion people, products worth almost 2,000 billion US dollars and trade totaling 1,200 billion US dollars.

Figures from Chinese customs show in the first 10 months this year, China-ASEAN trade generated 43.46 billion US dollars, up 28.3 percent on a year-on-year basis. China's exports to ASEAN grew 27.6 percent to 18.82 billion US dollars, while its imports from ASEAN climbed 28.9 percent to 24.64 billion US dollars.

Surveys released by China's southwestern Yunnan province, which borders ASEAN countries, show that trade volume between China and ASEAN has since 1995 risen by an average of over 15 percent annually.

In 2001, ASEAN's trade with the world's other major economic powers slumped owing to the impact of the "September 11" terror attack on the United States and the ensuing global economic slowdown. But ASEAN and China still registered as much as 41.615 billion US dollars in trade volume in 2001, a rise of 5.3 percent from the previous year.

ASEAN is now the fifth largest trade partner for China, following Japan, the United States, the European Union and the Republic of Korea (ROK). At the same time, China has become ASEAN's sixth major trade partner.

Over the next three years, China-ASEAN trade is expected to grow at an annual rate of 10 percent and reach 63 billion US dollars in 2005.

Figures for last year show China-ASEAN trade accounted for 8.16 percent of China's total foreign trade, up from 5.87 percent in 1991. China's imports from ASEAN grew faster than exports during the period.

President of the ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry Pyone Maung Maung said China's rapid economic development and its entry into the World Trade Organization made it a huge potential market for ASEAN products.

According to figures from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, by the end of last September, contracted foreign investment from ASEAN in China totaled 57.77 billion US dollars, involving 19,281 projects. China had invested 690 million US dollars in ASEAN countries by the same date.

Chairman of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China Ngoh Keh Chang said that during the process of setting up the Free Trade Area, if Chinese and ASEAN companies could successfully restructure their production and trade, they would build up their international competitiveness.

In the first nine months this year, Chinese companies signed 3,420 construction and labor contracts in ASEAN countries worth 1.28billion US dollars altogether.

Both Chinese and ASEAN business communities had realized the bright prospects for the Free Trade Area, said Chen Chunlin from the Yunnan Corporation For International Techno-Economic Cooperation.

The cooperation among governments, businesses and chambers of commerce had become the major driving force of China-ASEAN economic and trade relations, said Vice President Wan Jifei of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

The China-ASEAN high-level talks, business council, joint committee of cooperation, economic and trade joint committee and science and technology joint committee constitute the five major dialogue mechanisms of cooperation between China and ASEAN. With the establishment of China-ASEAN business networks, companies in the region can better exchange commercial information.

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