China News Service, Beijing, March 9. According to the recent import and export data released by the General Administration of Customs of China in the first two months of this year, ASEAN continues to be China's largest trading partner.
Experts believe that there will be more bright spots in cooperation between China and ASEAN this year.
In the first two months of this year, the total value of China-ASEAN trade was 786.2 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), an increase of 32.9%, accounting for 14.4% of China's total foreign trade value.
Among them, exports to ASEAN were 439.83 billion yuan, an increase of 43.2%; imports from ASEAN were 346.37 billion yuan, an increase of 21.8%; the trade surplus with ASEAN was 93.46 billion yuan, an increase of 310.4%.
Since the beginning of this year, the top three countries in terms of trade volume between China and the ten ASEAN countries are Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand.
In response to this, Xu Ningning, executive director of the China-ASEAN Business Council, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that this year, China and ASEAN have taken the 30th anniversary of the establishment of a dialogue partnership as an opportunity, and the cooperation between the two sides is showing more highlights.
The first is the rapid growth of trade between the two sides, which shows that China is the most dynamic group of relations between ASEAN and the dialogue partnership.
Second, China has provided China's new crown vaccine to nine of the ten ASEAN countries to help ASEAN prevent and control the epidemic.
Third, the Chinese government has formally approved the agreement to promote the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which has created conditions for its effective implementation.
Fourth, China is aligning the construction of a new development pattern with the "ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework", including the promotion of digital economic cooperation and sustainable development cooperation.
In particular, this year's government work report proposes to deepen multilateral, bilateral and regional economic cooperation, firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, and promote the early implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).
Xu Ningning said that China has recently done a lot of "homework" to welcome the entry into force of RCEP, which fully embodies the positive actions to expand opening up and its strong support for the construction of RCEP.
At the same time, this also reflects China's confidence and determination to enhance cooperation and development with other RCEP member states. It is believed that the construction of RCEP will not only promote regional economic growth, but also contribute to world economic growth.
In 2020, among the 15 member states of RCEP, China's trade with 14 other countries accounted for 31.7% of China's total trade value, an increase of 3.5%, of which exports increased by 5%; imports increased by 2.2%.
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