China, ASEAN Highlight Free Market for Farm Produce

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

China, ASEAN Highlight Free Market for Farm Produce

A free market for farm produce covering an area with 1.7 billion people is being drafted by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

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A free market for farm produce covering an area with 1.7 billion people is being drafted by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Framework Agreement on China-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation signed in November singled out agriculture as one of the priorities for economic cooperation.

"Since agriculture plays a significant role in the economy of both China and ASEAN members, a free market of farm produce will probably be piloted in the Sino-ASEAN free-trade process," said Li Hong, an expert with the Southeast Asia Study Institute of Guangxi University.

Customs figures showed that China imported farm produce worth 520 million US dollars from Malaysia in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year rise of 75 percent, while the import volume from Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines also saw considerable increases.

Meanwhile, China's exports of fruit and vegetables to the ten ASEAN members saw a year-on-year rise of 50 percent to reach 340 million US dollars in the first three quarters.

Farm produce exports from China to Malaysia reached 400 million US dollars, up 66 percent over the same period last year.

The capital flow between the two sides is speeding up. Thailand-based Chiatai Group plans to invest 100 million US dollars in retailing, wine-making and food processing in southwest China's Sichuan province next year and is also to set up an aquatic products breeding and processing base in east China's Shandong province with an investment of 800 million yuan.

The New Hope Group, a leading private enterprise in China, invested 90 million yuan in Thailand and the Philippines last year after it set up two feed factories in Vietnam in 2000.

Some southeast Asian countries have introduced high-yield hybrid rice from China and the Chinese government has just trained a group of agricultural technicians from ASEAN members.

The two sides also launched a series of agricultural exhibitions since last September, much more frequently than before.

The exhibition of applicable new technologies and products from China, including agricultural technology, was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Nov. 27, while the first southeast Asia agriculture exposition was held in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Nov. 22.

"The new cooperative mechanism between China and ASEAN will create more opportunities for agricultural cooperation," Li Hong said.

According to the agreement, China and ASEAN agreed to first carry out an "early harvest package" -- including live animals, meat, fish, dairy products, live trees, vegetables, fruit and nuts-- in three years.

The free trade area is expected to be completed in 2010 between China and the six ASEAN members of Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, while for the less-developed ASEAN nations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, the timetable was delayed till 2015.

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