China-ASEAN relations ‘most successful, vibrant model’ for cooperation in Asia-Pacific: Xi

Publié le 28 novembre 2020Mis à jour le 28 novembre 2020

From ‘golden era’ to ‘diamond decade’

In Nanning, which is dubbed as a frontier for China-ASEAN cooperation, it is easy to see rambutan from Thailand and eggfruits from Myanmar when local residents walk into supermarkets.

The access to affordable tropical fruits is partly enabled by a booming trade between China and ASEAN since the signing of the China-ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA) in 2010. An upgraded protocol of the FTA was implemented in 2019.

In 2020, ASEAN took over the EU to become China’s largest trading partner. In the first 10 months of 2020, bilateral trade volume reached 3.79 trillion yuan, up 7 percent year-on-year. China’s investment in the bloc increased 70 percent in the first three quarters of 2020 from last year.

In addition to trade, another highlight of regional cooperation is infrastructure connectivity, which guarantees the free flow of goods even at the height of a pandemic.

So far, the Kunming-Bangkok Road, an important infrastructure project under the ASEAN framework and part of the Asian road network, has been running smoothly for more than a decade.

As China-ASEAN cooperation moves from the « golden era » to the « diamond decade, » what’s next for the two economies?

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