China News Agency, Jakarta, August 9th (Reporter Lin Yongchuan) Deng Xijun, China's ambassador to ASEAN, said in Jakarta on the 9th that China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation will strongly promote regional economic recovery.
On the same day, Deng Xijun held a video press conference to introduce Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's attendance at the 2021 East Asian Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
When answering a question about the latest developments in China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, Deng Xijun made the above remarks.
According to Deng Xijun, ASEAN surpassed the EU to become China's largest trading partner in 2020. This is another breakthrough that ASEAN has achieved after surpassing the United States in 2019 to become China's second largest trading partner.
China has become ASEAN's largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years.
In the first half of this year, the total value of China-ASEAN trade was 410.75 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 38.2%, accounting for 14.7% of China's total foreign trade value.
Deng Xijun said that when the new crown epidemic has caused global trade to shrink, China-ASEAN trade has risen against the trend, and its scale and quality have increased to a higher level. This fully reflects the strong resilience of China-ASEAN economic and trade relations and also provides regional economic recovery. Strong support.
With the steady progress of China and ASEAN's high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", the scale of investment cooperation between the two parties has also continued to expand, and ASEAN has increasingly become one of the preferred regions for Chinese companies to invest overseas.
In 2020, China’s direct investment in ASEAN was US$14.36 billion, an increase of 52.1%; from January to June this year, Chinese companies’ direct investment in ASEAN was US$6.81 billion, and ASEAN’s actual investment in China was US$5.63 billion; as of the end of June this year, China and ASEAN The country’s total mutual investment totaled more than 310 billion U.S. dollars. The two sides have steadily expanded their investment cooperation in manufacturing, agriculture, infrastructure, high-tech, digital economy, and green economy.
Deng Xijun said that as the post-epidemic economic recovery creates widespread demand, the development of the digital economy and the signing of RCEP provide sufficient impetus, China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation has shown broader development prospects.
With the joint efforts of both parties, China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation will surely achieve more fruitful results, laying a solid foundation for furthering the building of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future.
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