Since April, there has been a wave of high-level visits to China among Southeast Asian countries. Indonesia's newly elected President Prabowo chose China for his first visit, demonstrating a high level of importance attached to China. At the same time, Wang Yi, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, held talks in Guangxi with Lao Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Charente, East Timor Foreign Minister Bendito, and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pei Qingshan, further consolidating and strengthening friendly relations with these countries. In addition, Thai Princess Sirindhorn, Vietnamese Parliament President Wang Tinghui, and Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Wang Ruijie have also visited China one after another.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning recently pointed out that several leaders and foreign ministers of Southeast Asian countries have recently visited China. Mao Ning also mentioned that China's economic and trade relations with ASEAN have remained stable, and they have been each other's largest trading partners for four consecutive years. Southeast Asian countries have played an important role as partners in China's the Belt and Road Initiative. Many cooperation projects, such as the China Laos Railway, the Ya'an Wanzhou High speed Railway and the China Malaysia Double Parks, have not only promoted regional economic growth, but also brought tangible benefits to the local people. In addition, China has achieved visa exemption with countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, providing great convenience for personnel exchanges between the two sides. At the same time, the China ASEAN Cultural Exchange Year will also hold a series of colorful activities aimed at further deepening the understanding and friendship between the two peoples, and promoting exchanges and cooperation in the field of humanities.

The friendly relationship between China and ASEAN is like friends getting closer and neighbors getting closer. On the path of win-win cooperation, the foundation of cooperation between the two sides is becoming increasingly solid, and the prospects for cooperation are becoming broader. Through the joint construction of the the Belt and Road Initiative, the cooperation between China and ASEAN has been further strengthened and deepened, and a more exquisite fine brushwork has been painted together.

Harvest fruitful cooperation results

Since 2024, the positive effects of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement have gradually emerged, promoting new progress in the construction of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area, and deepening economic and trade cooperation between the two sides, demonstrating a more solid and pragmatic trend.

The trade partnership between China and ASEAN remains stable and shows a positive growth trend. In the recent quarter, the total value of bilateral trade reached 1.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%, accounting for 15% of China's total foreign trade, further consolidating the position of both sides as each other's largest trading partners. In terms of exports, China's export value to ASEAN reached 963.37 billion yuan, an increase of 7.7%, demonstrating the strong competitiveness of Chinese products in the ASEAN market. At the same time, China's imports from ASEAN also reached 632.5 billion yuan, an increase of 4.5%, indicating a sustained growth in China's demand for ASEAN goods.

In US dollars, the total trade value between China and ASEAN reached 224.6 billion US dollars, an increase of 2.8%. Among them, China's exports to ASEAN amounted to 135.57 billion US dollars, an increase of 4.1%, while imports amounted to 89.03 billion US dollars, an increase of 1.0%. These numbers fully demonstrate the close cooperation and mutual benefit between China and ASEAN in the field of trade.

China and ASEAN are important investment sources and destinations for each other. According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, in the first quarter, China's non-financial outward foreign direct investment increased by 12.5% year-on-year, with an investment growth rate of 36.7% in ASEAN, significantly higher than the overall growth rate. China has signed bilateral investment agreements with 10 ASEAN countries, signed production capacity cooperation agreements with countries such as Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and jointly built industrial parks such as the Sihanouk Port Economic Zone in Cambodia, the China Thailand Rayong Industrial Park in Thailand, and the "Two Countries and Two Parks" in China, Malaysia, and China Indonesia. The supply chain connection between the two sides has become closer. In addition, as of July 2023, China has established over 6500 direct investment enterprises in ASEAN, with a cumulative two-way investment of over 380 billion US dollars.

Major projects along the the Belt and Road promote cross-border cooperation and exchanges. As an important project to jointly build the the Belt and Road and transform Laos into a land locked country, the China Laos Railway has handed over a striking report card of prosperous passenger and freight transport. According to the data from China National Railway Group Co., Ltd., in the first quarter, China Laos Railway delivered more than 5.74 million passengers and more than 4.87 million tons of goods, including 1.38 million tons of import and export goods, up 33.6% year on year. The China Laos Railway International Passenger Train has sent 180000 cross-border passengers from 87 countries and regions in the past year.

China and ASEAN are vigorously promoting negotiations on the China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0. From January 29th to February 2nd, the fifth round of negotiations on the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The two sides actively implemented the consensus of the China ASEAN Leaders Meeting, comprehensively accelerated the negotiation process, and promoted the completion of negotiations on small and medium-sized enterprises. They also made positive progress in various fields such as digital economy, green economy, supply chain connectivity, standards, goods trade, investment, competition and consumer protection, customs procedures and trade facilitation, legal and institutional affairs. The China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 negotiation was launched in November 2022, and five rounds of negotiations have been held so far. Both sides strive to complete the negotiations within 2024 in order to create a higher-level free trade area.

Building a new growth pole for cooperation

In recent years, China and ASEAN countries have made significant progress in trade, investment, connectivity, and regional cooperation, achieving remarkable results in economic and trade cooperation.

The prospect of future economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN is promising. For the next step of expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with ASEAN in all aspects and jointly improving the level of economic and trade cooperation, Yuan Bo, Director and Researcher of the Asia Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that firstly, it is to innovate the development model of the two countries' dual parks and promote the upgrading of the China ASEAN production and supply chain cooperation platform. By relying on the established dual park cooperation platforms between China and ASEAN countries, such as China Malaysia and China Indonesia, as well as cross-border economic cooperation platforms such as China Laos, China Vietnam, and China Myanmar, we will explore flexible cooperation models of dual park multi zone, multi country multi park, and collaborative linkage. We will fully leverage our respective comparative advantages and jointly build demonstration projects for cross-border production and supply chain cooperation between China and ASEAN. Based on the principle of market-oriented cooperation and relying on leading enterprises in the chain, we will promote more regions to incubate deep and comprehensive cooperation models such as single cooperation between two countries and two factories, which have the conditions, into two countries and two parks.

The second is to focus on new productive forces and cultivate new growth poles for China ASEAN economic and trade cooperation. Facing the future, with a focus on digital economy, green economy, strategic emerging industries, and future industries, we will strengthen cooperation between China and ASEAN countries in the field of technological innovation, jointly build an open and innovative cooperation network, enhance regional industrial competitive advantages, and form new growth poles for economic and trade cooperation. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, the Belt and Road project, overseas project.

The third is to create a high-level free trade agreement and unleash the potential of China ASEAN economic and trade cooperation. On the one hand, the government should strengthen cooperation to jointly solve the bottlenecks and difficulties in the implementation of the China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and RCEP, jointly improve the comprehensive utilization rate of the free trade agreement, and benefit more enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises; On the other hand, we will accelerate the negotiations on the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area, timely launch follow-up negotiations on RCEP, focus on SPS, TBT, etc., increase mutual recognition and exchange in regulatory and standard areas, and further improve the level of institutional openness between China and ASEAN. (This article is from the official website of Jiandao: www.seetao. com. Reproduction without permission is not allowed, otherwise it will be punished. Please indicate Jiandao's website and the original link when reprinting.) Jiandao's mechanical column editor/Zhou Yingwen