ASEAN-China trade doubles to over USD500B

Since the establishment of ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA), bilateral trade between ASEAN and China has doubled from USD235.5 billion in 2010 to USD516.9 billion in 2020.

China continues to be ASEAN’s largest trading partner since 2009 while ASEAN became the largest partner for China for the first time in 2020.

This was revealed by Permanent Secretary (Economy) at the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah binti Haji Ahmad Ariffin during the 11th Joint Council Meeting of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) held on December 14 via video conferencing.

The meeting was co-chaired by Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah and Charge d’Affaires ad Interim at Mission of China to ASEAN Jiang Qin.

Attending the meeting were Council Directors for the ASEAN member states and China as well as ACC Secretary General Chen Dehai.

In a speech, Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah encouraged ACC work programmes to leverage on existing several initiatives that have been put in place at the regional level including the ASEAN Digital Comprehensive Recovery Framework; the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025; and the Bandar Seri Begawan Roadmap (BSBR) to Digitalisation.

She also urged the group to continue working towards the enhancement of the ASEAN-China FTA to ensure the agreement remains up-to-date and continues to benefit businesses and communities.

On the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah pointed out the need for ACC to play a central role in promoting RCEP to stakeholders through value-added programmes to guide producers, investors, businesses and the public to fully understand and utilise the benefits of the agreement.

The meeting endorsed the annual report of 2021; the work programme of 2022; and the proposed budget of operational expenditure of 2022.

The meeting took note of the recommendations on the work programme of 2022, among others, to leverage on digital technology for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and to come up with programmes that are tailored to the theme of ASEAN-China Year of Sustainable Development.

Source: BBN