Trade tensions with the US, Chinese businesses prioritize ASEAN market

ASEAN and Chinese leaders attend the 21st ASEAN-China Summit in 2018. (Photo: VGPQuang Hieu).

The China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) roundtable on industrial cooperation took place on May 31 in Beijing (China).

The purpose of this conference is to implement the common understanding reached at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in late April 2019, thereby promoting ASEAN-China industrial cooperation and jointly responding to the current unstable factors in the world economy.

Speaking at the conference, Chairman of the China-ASEAN Business Council, Xu Ningning, said that by the end of the first quarter of 2019, the two-way trade turnover reached 137.1 billion USD; ASEAN has risen to become China's second largest trading partner.

According to Mr. Hua Ningning, by the end of 2018, the total two-way investment between ASEAN and China reached 205.7 billion USD, over the past 15 years, the total bilateral investment has increased 22 times.

He also assessed that in the context of increasing Sino-US trade tensions, Chinese enterprises will increase investment in ASEAN countries.

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Commercial Counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in China Dao Viet Anh affirmed that Vietnam is one of the dynamically developing economies in the region and the world; industrial cooperation between China and Vietnam plays an important role in promoting the healthy and stable development of bilateral economic and trade relations.

Commercial Counselor Dao Viet Anh recommended that leaders of Chinese trade associations should actively promote their leading role, increase the organization of member enterprises to visit Vietnam to visit, survey, exchange, and build cooperative relations with corresponding associations of the Vietnamese side, thereby creating more opportunities for cooperation and business connections for enterprises of the two countries.

Besides, this roundtable conference has some bright spots such as: the content is closely combined with practical needs.

At the conference, more than 20 leaders of China's national trade associations held dialogues with ASEAN trade counselors in China, through which they analyzed and discussed ways to promote new developments in investment and trade between China and ASEAN through industry cooperation; the conference reached many common understandings related to the fields of cooperation.

The China-ASEAN Business Council and the China Electric Power Enterprise Association, China Building Materials Association, China Minerals Association, China Agricultural Machinery Association, China General Machinery Industry Association, China Fresh Food Industry Association, and China Aquatic Products Processing and Distribution Association jointly signed the “New Memorandum of Understanding on Development Cooperation on China-ASEAN Industrial Cooperation;” facilitating the search for new cooperation and business opportunities.

Commercial Counselors from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, and Myanmar introduced the economic situation, development needs, investment environment, and trade cooperation opportunities in each country.

Chinese delegates attending the conference also agreed that this is extremely necessary information for Chinese enterprises to invest and develop in ASEAN countries.

Through exchanges and discussions, delegates attending the conference all believe that ASEAN-China industrial cooperation will promote Chinese enterprises to invest conveniently and effectively in ASEAN countries, thereby enhancing the ability to complement each other's comparative advantages between enterprises of the two sides.