The 20th China-ASEAN Expo will be held from September 16 to 19 in Nanning, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

Edited by GONG Qian

The past decade has witnessed China-ASEAN deepening their cooperation and benefiting both.

Addressing the 26th ASEAN-China Summit, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said China and ASEAN are good neighbors, good brothers and good partners, and will remain so. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called China a “good neighbor and great friend” in terms of trade, investment and security arrangements, according to The Nation, a daily newspaper based in Pakistan.

Mutual benefits in regional economy

According to the ASEAN Secretariat, China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years while ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for three consecutive years. Their bilateral trade reached 975.3 billion USD in 2022, more than double of  what it was 10 years ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China.  

China and ASEAN are also important mutual investment sources and destinations. By July this year, the cumulative two-way investment between them exceeded 380 billion USD. More than 6,500 Chinese enterprises with direct investment are operating in ASEAN countries, according to China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

China has proposed to accelerate ASEAN-China Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade negotiation and strives to conclude the negotiation in 2024. The new agreement will enhance institutional opening-ups in China-ASEAN trade and economic cooperation while expanding cooperation in other fields such as the digital economy.

BRI infrastructure links

An important basis for China to help ASEAN's development is to enhance infrastructure connectivity. 

According to MOFCOM, by July this year, the cumulative turnover of Chinese enterprises' contracted projects in ASEAN countries had exceeded 380 billion USD and Southeast Asia absorbed the largest number of contracted projects from China to countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The major projects include the China-Laos Railway, which started operation at the end of 2021. It has transported about 21 million passengers and more than 25 million tons of cargo, helping transform Laos from a "land-locked country" to a "land-linked country", stimulating the economic growth of the country.

The Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, connecting two of Indonesia’s largest cities,  is a flagship project under the BRI and 

is expected to begin commercial operations in October. The 142.3-km railway will be the fastest in Southeast Asia, running at up to 350 km per hour, cutting travel time between the two cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.

“This is clear proof of modern, high-quality cooperation between the two countries,” Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.