Connecting with RCEP, Fujian seizes opportunities to promote economic and trade cooperation

(Economic Observation) Connecting with RCEP, Fujian seizes opportunities to promote economic and trade cooperation

　　China News Service, Shishi, Fujian, December 28 (Reporter Lin Ling) The "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (RCEP) will take effect on January 1, 2022.

Huang Dezhi, deputy director of the Fujian Provincial Department of Commerce, told China News Agency reporters on the 28th that the effective implementation of RCEP is expected to become an important engine for Fujian to deepen industrial cooperation, promote market opening, stabilize the industrial supply chain, and promote regional development. "Welcome young overseas Chinese businessmen. Friends often visit Fujian to find business opportunities and seek common development."

　　The 2021 RCEP Young Overseas Chinese Businessmen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit will continue to be held in Shishi City, Fujian Province on the same day, attracting overseas Chinese businessmen from the Philippines, Japan, Thailand and other countries to participate in industrial investment promotion activities online and offline or on-site visits to the Shishi Southeast Asia procurement and distribution center, demonstrating regional economic and trade cooperation Prospects and opportunities.

　　RCEP members include 10 ASEAN countries and 15 Asia-Pacific countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

In recent years, economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Fujian and RCEP member countries have become increasingly close.

In Huang Dezhi's view, the implementation of RCEP is both an opportunity and a challenge.

　　At present, ASEAN has surpassed the European Union and the United States to become Fujian’s largest source of imports and exports, and Japan and South Korea are Fujian’s fifth and seventh largest trading partners.

Official statistics show that in 2020, the total import and export trade between Fujian and RCEP member countries increased by 13.9% year-on-year; in the first nine months of this year, under the good expectations of the effective implementation of RCEP, the trade between Fujian and RCEP member countries increased substantially against the epidemic. The total amount increased by 30.8% year-on-year, which was higher than the province's average increase in import and export trade.

　　As of the end of 2020, Fujian enterprises have set up 8 overseas economic and trade cooperation parks in Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, with more than 20 enterprises stationed in them, with a cumulative investment of US$640 million.

From 2010 to 2020, Fujian has filed a total of 539 investment projects in RCEP member states, and China’s total contractual investment amounted to US$8.21 billion, accounting for 20.4% of the province’s foreign investment in the same period.

　　Huang Dezhi told reporters that the Fujian Provincial Government has held several special meetings to study and deploy RCEP, and at the same time establish a cross-departmental "RCEP effective implementation working mechanism" to strengthen research and propose countermeasures.

　　On May 24, 2021, the "Fujian Province's Action Plan for Comprehensive Docking of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" was promulgated.

This action plan focuses on tariff concessions, rules of origin, and opening up of service trade in RCEP member states, combined with the actual situation in Fujian, from goods trade, investment promotion, Fujian merchants to sea, key countries, service trade, and Silk Road e-commerce. , Economic and trade platforms, integrated channels, trade clearance, business environment and other ten aspects put forward 28 specific actions to guide and support enterprises to seize the favorable opportunities of the effective implementation of RCEP to expand the export of superior products and the import of competitive products.

　　In addition, the Fujian Provincial Department of Commerce actively plans to promote the establishment of the "Fujian Asia-Pacific Economic and Trade Cooperation Promotion Association" as an important starting point for further promoting the economic and trade cooperation between Fujian and the Asia-Pacific region and the comprehensive docking of RCEP. An important platform for cooperation.

　　Fujian is a well-known hometown of overseas Chinese in China. There are 15.8 million overseas Chinese living in 188 countries and regions.

In particular, Fujian and Southeast Asia are geographically close, close to each other, and exchanges have a long history. Most RCEP member countries are the main settlements of overseas Chinese in Fujian.

Huang Dezhi expressed the hope that overseas Chinese businessmen can exchange information, make good use of the RCEP rules, and enhance their innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities.

　　"RCEP implementation is based on regional opening to promote development. Overseas Chinese businessmen can not only use their unique advantages to share open dividends, but also play a role as a bridge to promote cooperation." Xu Ningning, Executive Director of the China-ASEAN Business Council and Chairman of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, attended the summit It is believed that Fujian can give full play to the information advantages, channel advantages and bridge advantages of overseas Chinese businessmen to promote the docking of Fujian and other countries in the world in order to expand the opening up results in the implementation of RCEP.

　　He emphasized that if Fujian wants to seize the opportunity of RCEP, it must pay full attention to regional economic cooperation, centering on the key word of RCEP "tariff reduction", taking industry as the starting point, improving the level of industrial cooperation through industry mechanism construction, and creating a complete new industrial chain; Fujian Chambers of Commerce in many countries around the world will carry out special research and training on RCEP to help enterprises use RCEP rules to develop international markets and invest.

　　When interpreting RCEP online, Yuan Bo, deputy director of the Institute of Asian Studies of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, also suggested that Fujian fully connect with RCEP, further expand overseas markets, do a good job in the dynamic adjustment of the industrial chain supply chain, enhance foreign investment capabilities, and promote High-quality development.

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