General

Du nanzhong, Consul General of the Vietnamese Consulate General in Nanning, said here on the 21st that the entry into force and implementation of RCEP (regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement) has ushered in an era of more positive development in the economic and trade exchanges between ASEAN and China. The economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and China is becoming closer and closer, and there is great potential for cooperation.

On the same day, the fourth ASEAN Development Conference and the press conference of ASEAN Development Report (2021), jointly sponsored by Guangxi University for nationalities, Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences and China Southeast Asia Research Association, was held in Nanning, Guangxi. The meeting focused on the development of Southeast Asian regions and countries in 2021, focused on the construction of ASEAN Community in 2021 and the economic development, political situation and diplomatic strategy of ASEAN countries, and discussed and prospected the development of China ASEAN relations.

With the formal implementation of RCEP at the beginning of this year, the economic and trade exchanges between China and ASEAN have become closer. According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs of China, in the first quarter of this year, China's import and export volume to ASEAN reached 1.35 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%, accounting for 14.4% of China's total foreign trade. ASEAN has become China's largest trading partner again. Among them, the import and export scale of China and ASEAN accounts for 47.2% of the foreign trade scale with RCEP trading partners, accounting for nearly half.

"RCEP is an important milestone for ASEAN to promote the development of regional economic integration. Under the adverse impact of the weak global economic recovery, the rise of trade protectionism and the disruption of the industrial chain supply chain caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, the effective implementation of RCEP is conducive to promoting the construction of the regional industrial chain supply chain and injecting strong impetus into the construction of a competitive, innovative and dynamic ASEAN." Said zhangjiashou, President of the "the Belt and Road" Research Institute of the Party School of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Committee.

Du nanzhong said that Vietnam and China have continued exchanges in various fields, deepened practical cooperation and deeply blended economic and trade interests. In the first four months of this year, the total import and export volume of Vietnam and China reached US $55.99 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.39%. In the future, Vietnam will actively expand cooperation with China in various fields to promote economic recovery after the epidemic.

How to improve the quality and efficiency of China ASEAN Economic and trade cooperation under the framework of RCEP? Lei Xiaohua, deputy director of Southeast Asia Research Institute of Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences and chief expert of Southeast Asia country research and innovation team of Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, believes that we should strengthen the strategic research on the construction of version 3.0 of China ASEAN Free Trade Area, start negotiations as soon as possible, improve the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and further promote the integrated development and upgrading of bilateral industrial chain, value chain and supply chain.

He suggested that China ASEAN International production capacity cooperation could be further deepened, a new mode of China ASEAN "Multi Country and multi Park" cooperation could be explored, a demonstration zone for high-quality development of international production capacity cooperation could be created, cooperation in emerging strategic industries such as digital economy, new energy vehicles, 5g and artificial intelligence could be strengthened, and a demonstration zone for economic and trade innovation and development could be jointly built.