China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation shows strong resilience
A few days ago, the first ceremony of Cambodian fresh mango exports to China was held in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, in a combination of online and offline methods.
It is reported that the first batch of 80 tons of fresh mangoes departed from Phnom Penh Port, via Ho Chi Minh Port, Vietnam, and then arrived in China by sea.
The entry of Cambodian fresh mangoes into the Chinese market has become the latest footnote to the continued vitality of trade between China and ASEAN.
According to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs of China, the total value of trade between China and ASEAN in the first four months of this year was 1.72 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.6%.
China and ASEAN continue to be each other's largest trading partners.
At a time when global trade has shrunk due to the epidemic, trade between China and ASEAN has risen against the trend, the scale and quality of bilateral trade have been raised to a higher level, and economic and trade cooperation has continued to deepen and become more solid.
China's consumption upgrade, boosting ASEAN export growth
In the mango plantation of Lak, a Cambodian fruit farmer, mangoes are packed full of branches. Workers skillfully cut the mangoes and gently put them in paper-paved plastic boxes, waiting to be transported to the packaging factory for sterilization and pest control.
On April 26, the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China officially announced the list of 37 registered orchards of Cambodian mango exporting to China and 5 packaging companies, among which the mango plantations in Luck were listed.
For Luck, this is undoubtedly good news. "May is the harvest season for mangoes. I hope that we can use this opportunity to export our high-quality mangoes to the Chinese market."
Langhe Fruit Industry is one of the five packaging companies approved this time.
The general manager of the company, Lu Song, said that there is a huge demand for mangoes in the Chinese market. Cambodian mangoes are ripened twice a year and can be supplied from October to May of the following year.
"Now, we are not only busy with the supply of mangoes for this season, but also preparing for the next mango season to ensure the quality of mangoes exported to China."
Hong Li, head of Cambodia Asia Rich Farmers Co., Ltd., which has been engaged in the export of fruits and agricultural products for a long time, said that the export of Cambodian fresh mangoes to China will promote the conversion of Cambodian mango cultivation from traditional or family-style operations to commercial production, and promote the Cambodian mango planting industry and cold chain logistics industry. And the development of related industries such as ports.
With the upgrading of consumption in China's domestic market, there is a strong demand for imports of consumer products from ASEAN countries, especially agricultural products.
In the first quarter of this year, China imported 52.42 billion yuan of consumer goods from ASEAN, an increase of 30.6%.
Since the beginning of this year, China has also increased the scale of beef cattle imports from ASEAN.
In February this year, the General Administration of Customs of China issued an announcement to allow Lao beef cattle that meet relevant requirements to be imported into China.
On April 28, the first batch of Lao beef cattle was transported from the quarantine site of the foot-and-mouth disease immunization zone in Nanta Province, Laos to the quarantine site at Mengman Port in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The trade of beef cattle between China and Laos was officially implemented.
It is reported that Laos will export 500,000 beef cattle to China every year.
E-commerce builds a platform to unleash the potential of bilateral trade
Haiduoco coconut water from Indonesia is sold on the Chinese online shopping platform Jingdong Mall and has won praise from Chinese consumers.
This Indonesian company, which specializes in coconut water and coconut fruit, was once in a sales trouble due to the epidemic.
Later, with the idea of giving it a try, the company contacted JD Indonesia, hoping to boost sales through the online platform.
Large quantities of products were subsequently exported to China.
In the first four months of this year alone, the number of orders for Haiduo's cocoa exports to China has increased by 140% compared with the total number of orders for exports to China in the whole year of last year.
The cooperation between Haiduo Cocoa and Chinese companies is an epitome of Indonesian SMEs' survival in the plight and the use of Chinese e-commerce platforms to carry out cross-border trade.
Hong Xiaohui, Director of Warehousing and Logistics of JD Indonesia, told our reporter that the Chinese e-commerce platform has created job opportunities for the local area, promoted the trade cooperation between local SMEs and China, and also promoted the digitalization of its own economy.
Chinese enterprises have not only brought domestic warehousing and logistics advantages to Southeast Asia, and assisted Chinese SMEs to land in Southeast Asia, but also provided Southeast Asian SMEs with a channel to enter the Chinese consumer market.
Tang Zhimin, director of the China-ASEAN Studies Center of the Thai Chia University School of Management, believes that thanks to the upgrade of the free trade zone, China-ASEAN trade is on a track of rapid development.
The positive spillover effect of ASEAN-China open cooperation will help promote bilateral economic and trade relations to a new level.
The potential for trade between ASEAN and China to be tapped is that on the one hand, it is driven by the needs of each other's production and living, and on the other hand, it is closely related to the growth of mutual investment and the upgrading of industrial division of labor.
Strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation and promote regional economic recovery
Faced with the impact of the epidemic, China and ASEAN have strengthened cooperation, promoted the continuous growth of bilateral trade, jointly maintained the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, and provided support for the recovery of the regional economy.
During the joint fight against the epidemic, the two sides issued the "China-ASEAN Economic and Trade Ministers' Joint Statement on Strengthening Free Trade Cooperation in Combating the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic."
China and Singapore, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia and other countries have established "fast channels" for people and "green channels" for goods, which have played an important role in ensuring the development of bilateral trade.
The chairman of the Cambodian think tank Asia Vision Institute Qiang Wan Nari said that in the context of the economic impact of the epidemic, the export of Cambodian fresh mangoes to China is of great significance. This is one of China's important measures to assist Cambodia's recovery after the epidemic.
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia said that the successful export of Cambodian mangoes to China is another milestone in Cambodia-China agricultural cooperation. It will not only help the Cambodian economy continue to develop under the epidemic, but will also help Cambodian rural areas to reduce poverty.
The Cambodian side will continue to work closely with China to promote the export of more Cambodian agricultural products such as longan, dragon fruit, pepper, bird's nest, and coconut to China.
"ASEAN-China is moving forward in anti-epidemic cooperation and economic and trade cooperation, and continues to be each other's largest trading partners, which fully demonstrates the resilience of cooperation between the two sides." said Cai Congmiao, founding chairman of the Philippine Silk Road International Chamber of Commerce. In the unprecedented shock, it is difficult to overcome the epidemic with the power of one country alone. Only by cooperating with each other can we overcome the difficulties and promote economic recovery.
"Faced with the impact of the epidemic, ASEAN and China still have close manufacturing ties, and bilateral trade has gradually expanded to higher value-added industrial chains, involving digital economic cooperation such as 5G and smart cities. ASEAN-China trade development is gaining a steady stream of Driving force, the prospects for bilateral economic and trade cooperation are very broad." Tang Zhimin said.
Our reporter Sun Guangyong Zhang Jieyuan Jirong