"From January to September, bilateral trade volume increased
35.6 percent year-on-year to reach US$75.5 billion," said Vice
Premier?Wu Yi
Wednesday. "It is possible to exceed US$100 billion for the full
year."
Wu made the prediction at the China-ASEAN Business and
Investment Summit, a sister event of the First China-ASEAN
Exposition (CAEXPO). Both opened yesterday in Nanning, the capital
of south China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
China's trade with its Southeast Asian neighbors has prospered
since 1990, rising an average of 20 percent annually and hitting
US$78.2 billion in 2003. ASEAN has been China's fifth largest
trading partner for 11 consecutive years.
Wu also called for joint efforts from both sides to diversify
trading, with focuses on machinery, electronics products and
commodities with high added value.
China encourages domestic enterprises to import from ASEAN
countries and intends to accelerate this campaign.
ASEAN is an important source of foreign funds for China. As of
June this year, ASEAN members had recorded cumulative investment
totaling US$34 billion.
Conversely, China's investment in ASEAN has been on the rise in
recent years for a cumulative total of US$1.0 billion, and the
government will continue steering domestic companies toward
investment in the region.
China hopes to fast-track the establishment of the China-ASEAN
free trade area (FTA). Regional economic integration is a growing
trend amid the tide of globalization.
"China and ASEAN should team up," said Wu. "Only by doing so can
we grasp opportunities, meet challenges?... and withstand
fierce global competition."
China and ASEAN signed a comprehensive economic cooperative
framework agreement in 2002 that is expected to lead to the
establishment of the world's largest FTA by 2010. The area includes
1.7 billion consumers with a combined gross domestic product of
US$2 trillion.
In September, the two sides completed negotiations on the trade
of goods and will begin to implement tariff cuts in 2005.
The next phases of the FTA will concern trading of services and
investment.
At the summit, ASEAN leaders expressed confidence in the concept
and establishment of the FTA.
"The FTA will prove good for both," said Cambodian Prime
Minister Hun Sen. "ASEAN has benefited from a more developed
China."
(China Daily November 4, 2004)