On January 13, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on import and export in 2022. At the meeting, General Administration of Customs spokesman Lv Daliang said that 2022 is the first year of China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership, and the economic and trade exchanges between the two sides will be even stronger. The scale of import and export reached 6.52 trillion yuan, an increase of 15%, of which exports were 3.79 trillion yuan, an increase of 21.7%, and imports were 2.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.8%. During the same period, the proportion of ASEAN in my country's foreign trade has increased by 1 percentage point compared with 2021, reaching 15.5%, continuing to maintain my country's largest trading partner status.
One is the trade creation effect brought about by RCEP, which promotes closer cooperation in the industrial chain. Since the implementation of the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" for one year, policy dividends have continued to be released, promoting closer economic and trade exchanges among countries in the region. ASEAN is an important trading partner of my country in RCEP. In 2022, my country's import and export to ASEAN accounted for 50.3% of the scale of import and export to other RCEP member countries. my country's import and export of intermediate products to ASEAN was 4.36 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.2%, accounting for 67% of the total value of import and export between my country and ASEAN.
Second, the continuous advancement of facility interconnection has made economic and trade exchanges more convenient. With the steady progress of the construction of the new land-sea corridor in the west, the passage of goods between my country and ASEAN has become more convenient, and various modes of transportation have developed in a coordinated manner, among which the growth of railway transportation has been relatively rapid. In 2022, my country's import and export to ASEAN by railway, waterway and air transportation will increase by 197.6%, 26.7% and 15.5% respectively. In particular, at the end of 2021, the China-Laos Railway will be completed and opened to traffic, which will provide new impetus for further deepening economic and trade cooperation between China and related countries. In 2022, among the goods transported by my country and ASEAN by railway, the proportion of goods transported by China-Laos railway will jump to 44.7%, and the contribution rate to the growth of import and export by railway transport between China and ASEAN will exceed 60%.
The third is to deepen cooperation in agricultural products and promote the expansion of imports. In recent years, my country has accelerated the pace of importing agricultural products from ASEAN countries and continued to optimize the quarantine access procedures for key products such as agricultural products. Various agricultural products such as fresh durian from Vietnam, longan from Cambodia, and passion fruit from Laos have gained new quarantine access in my country. . In 2022, my country will import 246.86 billion yuan of agricultural products from ASEAN, an increase of 21.3%, accounting for 15.7% of my country's import and export value of agricultural products during the same period, an increase of 1.4 percentage points over the previous year.
The economic and trade relations between China and ASEAN have a solid foundation and great potential for development. Looking forward to the future, the two sides have broad areas of cooperation, integrated development strategies, and smooth trade exchanges. Driven by the continuous improvement of bilateral trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, the bilateral trade between my country and ASEAN is expected to achieve new and greater development.
