Editor's note: Yuan Bo is the director of the Asian Institute of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, under the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. It has been translated from Chinese and edited for brevity and clarity.
As economic and trade cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) accelerates, trade and investment continue to grow steadily, and collaboration in industrial and supply chains is becoming increasingly close.
In the first 10 months of 2024, the total trade volume between China and ASEAN reached $797.63 billion, up by 7.2 percent year on year, 3.5 percentage points higher than China's overall growth rate of foreign trade. This segment of trade accounted for 15.7 percent of China's total foreign trade, 0.5 percentage point higher compared to the same period in 2023.
In 2023, China's direct investment in ASEAN countries reached $25.12 billion, a 34.7 percent surge year on year. Seven of the top 20 destinations for China's foreign direct investment were ASEAN countries.
From January to July 2024, China's total foreign direct investment in all industries in ASEAN stood at $12.96 billion, registering a year-on-year growth of 15.3 percent.
ASEAN countries also invested actively in China, with direct investment amounting to $7.3 billion from January to July, increasing by 14.1 percent year on year.
By July 2024, China's cumulative bilateral investment with ASEAN countries surpassed $400 billion, and Chinese companies had accumulated over $440 billion in the turnover of contracting projects in ASEAN countries.
The two parties have also pushed forward their cooperation in industrial and supply chains.
Under the ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation framework, the parties concerned adopted the "ASEAN Plus Three Leaders' Statement on Strengthening the Connectivity of Regional Supply Chains" in 2024. Meanwhile, the Industrial Chain and Supply Chain Partnering Conference was also successfully held.
China-ASEAN's institutional "soft connectivity" continues to deepen, with further quality upgrading in the free trade agreement.
In October 2024, negotiations for the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 concluded with substantive results.
For the first time, both sides reached the highest level of agreements within their respective free trade agreements on chapters related to connectivity in the digital economy, green economy and supply chains.
Both parties also reached the highest level for standard technical regulations and qualification assessment procedures in their respective treaty practices.
The "highest level" marks that China-ASEAN economic and trade institutions have entered a new phase of high-standard and high-quality connectivity, thus providing vital institutional assurance and support for regional economic integration.
It also serves as a model for setting up cooperation institutions between regions and even on a global level.
The two sides have explored and established cooperative systems in emerging areas, which is conducive to nurturing new economic growth points, jointly developing frontier industries and enhancing digital, intelligent and green transformation in bilateral trade and investment.
Remarkable headway has been made in the "hard connectivity" between China and ASEAN, with steady advancements in infrastructure connectivity.
China and ASEAN countries have strengthened top-level design and are working to establish a multi-dimensional connectivity network on all fronts.
In terms of land transport, the China-Laos Railway and the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway have been completed and open to traffic, while the China-Vietnam Railway and China-Thailand Railway are also under construction.
China is working closely with Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and other ASEAN countries on road and bridge construction, thereby creating more interconnected regional road networks.
In maritime transport, China has opened over 150 shipping routes connecting ASEAN ports, covering all major ports in the region.
In air transport, direct air routes between China and all 10 ASEAN countries are now available, with annual civil aviation passenger numbers exceeding 25 million.
At the same time, China and ASEAN countries are actively building new land-sea corridors, creating innovative models for land-sea multimodal transport and integrating sea transport with other transportation methods such as road and rail transportation.
At the same time, they are also promoting the connection of the new land-sea corridors with the China Railway Express, thus elevating connectivity between ASEAN and European countries.
The China-ASEAN economic and trade relations, along with the "soft and hard connectivity," have shown strong development momentum.
The increasingly close relationship mentioned above has consolidated the political and economic foundation of bilateral collaboration, improved the well-being of the people from various countries in the region, and contributed to the building of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future.
(Cover via CFP)