In recent years, with the help of the China ASEAN Expo and the China ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, China and ASEAN countries have continued to carry out extensive practical cooperation and achieved fruitful results in infrastructure construction, digital economy development, personnel exchanges and other aspects. This year marks the beginning of China ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership. Standing at a new starting point, China ASEAN, an important platform, will welcome new opportunities and write a new chapter.
From September 16 to 19, the 19th China ASEAN Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "East China Expo") and the China ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (hereinafter referred to as the "Summit") will be held in Nanning, Guangxi. Standing at the new starting point of China ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership, China ASEAN, an important open platform, will give play to new momentum and show new achievements.
China and ASEAN are connected by mountains and seas and have maintained close and friendly cooperative relations for more than 30 years. last year, "Since the establishment of the dialogue relationship between China and ASEAN 30 years ago, the all-round cooperation between the two sides has been deepening. They are each other's largest trading partners and have become the most dynamic cooperation in the Asia Pacific region. Since the outbreak of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, the two sides have worked together to fight against the epidemic and overcome difficulties. With practical actions, they have demonstrated the spirit of a community of common destiny of watching, helping and sharing weal and woe."
New starting point and new opportunities. Through the East China Expo and the summit platform, China will carry out more extensive cooperation with ASEAN countries in regional infrastructure construction, economy and trade, digital connectivity and other fields, and promote the construction of a closer China ASEAN community of shared future.
Improve strategic mutual trust and strengthen infrastructure connectivity
On August 29, a sea rail intermodal container train loaded with Vietnamese trunking, Hainan coconut juice and other goods in China left Qinzhou Port Station in Guangxi and headed for Chongqing Tuanjie Village Station. This is the 20000th sea rail intermodal train of the new land and sea channel in the west, and it is also a phased answer paper handed over in the five years since the construction of this international trade logistics channel.
The new land sea channel in the west connects the Silk Road Economic Belt in the north and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in the south. "Over the past five years, a number of major projects, such as Nanning International Railway Port and Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port, have been completed successively, and the infrastructure construction of the new land and sea channels in the west has been continuously improved, further opening up the trade channel between China and ASEAN countries." Chen Hongqi, secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Department of Transportation of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said.
We will enhance strategic mutual trust and deepen the docking of development plans. Implement the China ASEAN Joint Statement on the Connection and Cooperation between the "Belt and Road" Initiative and the ASEAN General Plan for Connectivity 2025, strengthen the connectivity cooperation of railways, highways, ports, airports, power, communications and other infrastructure, accelerate the construction of existing economic corridors and key projects, and actively build the China ASEAN multimodal transport alliance, relying on the construction of new land and sea corridors.
With the help of the East China Expo and the Summit, China ASEAN connectivity has achieved fruitful results over the years: Guangxi has carried out international road transport business with Vietnam at the Friendship Pass and other open ports, and has successively opened several international transport routes; The cooperation between the Beibu Gulf Port and ASEAN countries on sea routes has been strengthened, and a number of direct two-way container flights between Qinzhou Port and Guandan Port have been opened; Up to now, the new land sea channel in the west has radiated 111 stations in 59 cities of 16 provinces (districts, cities) in China, with goods flowing to 335 ports in 113 countries and regions around the world and more than 640 types of transportation
The construction of new land and sea channels in the west is still accelerating. On August 28, the mobilization meeting for the construction of Pinglu Canal, the backbone project of the new land sea channel in the west, was held in Qinzhou, Guangxi. The completion of Pinglu Canal is expected to save more than 5.2 billion yuan in transportation costs for the regions along the new land sea channel in the west every year.
"We will continue to take the East China Expo and the Summit as the starting point to serve China ASEAN connectivity at a high level. Guided by the construction of a new land and sea channel in the west, we will promote the deep integration of transportation, logistics, commerce and industry along the line, and accelerate the construction of a new land and sea channel connecting China and ASEAN with the shortest time, the best service and the best price." Lan Tianli, President of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said.
Improve economic and trade cooperation and promote the comprehensive development of open markets
Walking into the production workshop of Shenghetang Health Food Co., Ltd., located in the ASEAN Fruit Town, China (Pingxiang), dozens of workers were sitting around to package the products of Guiling Cream. The packaged Guiling paste will be sent to all parts of the country from here. "After purchasing high-quality raw materials from Vietnam, we completed production and processing in the base. At present, the company's products are in short supply." Hu Jianhong, general manager of the company, said.
The prosperity and development of the fruit town is a microcosm of China ASEAN Free Trade Area moving towards a higher level. The establishment of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area has helped Guangxi move towards the forefront of opening up. At the beginning of this year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) came into force and implemented, injecting new momentum into the development of the Free Trade Zone.
According to the data, from 2004 to 2021, a total of 1.015 million Chinese and foreign businessmen participated in the East China Expo and the Summit. In the past five years, nearly 700 projects have been signed for the East China International Fair, and the amount of contracts has increased year by year. Behind the growing popularity of the East China Expo and the Summit is the leapfrog development of China ASEAN trade.
From 2004 to 2021, China ASEAN bilateral trade volume increased from 105.9 billion US dollars to 878.2 billion US dollars. Since 2020, ASEAN has become China's largest trading partner for two consecutive years. At the same time, Guangxi's trade with ASEAN increased from 8.29 billion yuan to 282.12 billion yuan, and ASEAN has become the largest trading partner of Guangxi for 22 consecutive years.
"The East China Expo is a 'booster' for the construction of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area. The 19th East China Expo will set up ASEAN and RCEP boutique exhibition areas for the first time around the upgrading of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area and the effective implementation of RCEP, and hold more than 80 key investment promotion activities to help exhibitors gain more business opportunities." Wei Zhaohui, secretary-general of the Secretariat of the East China International Fair and director of the Guangxi Bureau of Expositions, said.
"Many manufacturers and suppliers are connected through the platform of the East China Expo. After the implementation of RCEP, we will have more space for cooperation." With the help of the East China Expo platform, Zheng Zuoliang, president of Brunei Guangxi Chamber of Commerce and sales director of Brunei Fresh Food International Co., Ltd., extended Guangxi's products such as cactus, anise, Chinese herbal medicine and Brunei's shrimp slices from China and Brunei to more than ASEAN countries, and expanded to countries and regions along the "Belt and Road".
In 2020, the Cloud East Expo platform will be officially launched. Up to now, the Expo has achieved the "cloud" normality. "I hope our Durian products can continue to enter the market of China and other countries through the Cloud East Expo." Chen Zhiqiang, the person in charge of Diyilu Company in Malaysia, is looking forward to it.
"The East China Expo and the Summit have been successfully held for 18 consecutive sessions, playing a unique, key and important role in promoting regional economic integration, serving the country's diplomatic strategy, serving to build a new development pattern, and promoting the opening up and development of Guangxi." Liu Ning, Party Secretary of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said.
Promote scientific and technological innovation and deepen win-win cooperation in the digital economy
At nightfall, the Guangtou Digital Economy Demonstration base, located in the core base of the China ASEAN Information Port, is still brightly lit. Since the 12th China ASEAN Information Port Project was launched in 2015, more than 20 Internet enterprises, including Huawei and Inspur, have settled here, covering big data, cloud computing, financial technology, e-commerce and other industries.
Driven by the construction of the China ASEAN Information Port, the level of China ASEAN cross-border economic and trade services has been continuously improved. "Since this year, our cross-border e-commerce business to ASEAN has grown rapidly!" Lu Shangjian, vice general manager of Guangxi Cross border Purchase E-commerce Co., Ltd., said. Thanks to convenient customs clearance measures, the efficiency of cross-border e-commerce customs clearance in Nanning has been continuously improved, the overall export customs clearance time has been reduced to 1 hour, and the customs clearance capacity has reached 1 million pieces per day.
To better build the "Digital Silk Road", China ASEAN Information Port Co., Ltd. has built several economic and trade service platforms. At present, the digital platform of Smart Bay seaport can reduce repeated data entry and improve customs clearance efficiency; With the help of Internet, Internet of Things and blockchain technology, the China ASEAN Trade Connect digital platform has formed a service platform integrating transaction, customs clearance, supply chain, finance and logistics.
The vigorous development of cross-border economy and trade also gave birth to the new business form of cross-border e-commerce live broadcast. China (Nanning) Cross border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone is building a cross-border e-commerce live broadcast base for ASEAN to provide multilingual cross-border live broadcast services for domestic and foreign enterprises. "Hire Southeast Asian small language talents to bring goods live, and the ASEAN market will be opened soon. The live broadcast e-commerce has great prospects in Southeast Asia!" Chen Kang, the general manager of Nanning Baibaohui Storage Service Co., Ltd., is confident in the future as the number of fans of the live broadcast platform increases day by day.
Digital technology enables innovative development, and China ASEAN cooperation has broad prospects. The fifth China ASEAN Information Port Forum will also be held during the current East China Expo and the Summit. Wei Fengyun, Vice Minister of the Publicity Department of the Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Director of the Cyber Information Office, said that this forum is expected to sign more than 20 cooperation projects, covering digital economy, the Internet of Things, transformation of scientific and technological achievements and other aspects.