The 16th China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Expo concluded in late September in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. With the participation of 2,848 Chinese and foreign enterprises, the four-day event witnessed 90 trade and investment promotion activities among China, ASEAN member states and other Belt and Road participants.

A bridge

Cooperation between China and ASEAN started in 1991. Three years later, China joined the ASEAN Regional Forum, the first Asia-Pacific multilateral forum for official consultations on peace and security issues in the region. After the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting was launched to cooperate in the fields of politics, economy and security. And economic cooperation became an important part of China-ASEAN engagement with a focus on trade and finance.

At the Sixth China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting in 2002, the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation was signed. One of its main features was the agreement on a China-ASEAN free trade area (FTA). Consequently on January 1, 2004, the Early Harvest Program came into effect, a precursor of the FTA, liberalizing tariffs on specified goods. Later that year, more agreements were signed on trade in goods and a dispute settlement mechanism, giving a push to the China-ASEAN FTA.

In 2004, the First China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) was held in Nanning, to boost the FTA and provide new opportunities and platforms for economic and trade cooperation. Since then, CAEXPO has become an important platform and a pillar of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership.

Key investment promotion conferences and forums are held simultaneously with the annual expo to facilitate trade, investment and practical cooperation between enterprises in the region. Under the framework of CAEXPO, many high-level forums are held each year. A series of friendly exchanges and economic, trade and cultural activities, such as entrepreneurs' high-level cooperation dialogue and promotion conferences of ASEAN countries, are also held simultaneously. CAEXPO has become an important platform for all-round cooperation between China and Southeast Asian countries.

This year, as one of the sub-forums, the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit held in Hezhou, another city in Guangxi, explored sharing opportunities offered by new development strategies. They included the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a grand development plan to integrate China's Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and nine cities on the mainland into a hub of innovation and economic growth. It also considered the opportunities arising from the Guangxi eastward integration pilot demonstration area, which would be a bridge between the Greater Bay Area and the mainland, facilitating integration in industrial, scientific and technological innovation, the modern service industry and modernized agriculture.

Expanding cooperation

In 2010, when the China-ASEAN trade approached $300 billion, making China ASEAN's largest trade partner, the China-ASEAN FTA was launched.

Since 2013, after Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, trade cooperation, infrastructure construction, connectivity and production capacity cooperation have become priorities between China and ASEAN countries. CAEXPO is following the spirit of the initiative and emphasizing building a China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

It is also following modern trends and has promoted cross-border e-commerce and 5G technology cooperation.

In 2018, during the 15th CAEXPO, a report by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade said China-ASEAN cross-border e-commerce is highly complementary, has huge potentials and is seeing more investment cooperation. It suggested that the two sides should enhance trade facilitation and build up a China-ASEAN cross-border cooperation mechanism. The bilateral trade volume increased to nearly $600 billion in 2018.

The 15th CAEXPO showcased the application of 5G technology and this year too, at the 16th CAEXPO, some of the pavilions at the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center used 5G.

Deepening connectivity

The expo is also promoting regional connectivity. The 10th CAEXPO in 2013 saw the adoption of the declaration on the China-ASEAN Port Cities Cooperation Network, marking the beginning of port cooperation between the two sides.

Qinzhou City in Guangxi was designated as China's port base to build the China-ASEAN port cities network. Mayors of port cities from the 11 member states made a commitment to cooperate in navigation, port construction, port industries and port trade.

The Fourth China-ASEAN Port Cities Cooperation Network Working Conference was held in Nanning on September 21, when the participants discussed how to expand the network and jointly build a new channel for international land and sea trade. At present, the network has nearly 40 members, covering almost all major ports in China and ASEAN countries, with nine new members joining in during the 2019 expo.

Guangxi has built service facilities in Qinzhou, including a water training base and a maritime search and rescue sub-center. The Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group of China and Port of Singapore Authority have established an international container terminal company and set up a management company, jointly operating the Qinzhou Port terminal. The Chinese company has also made successful investments in Kuantan Port in Malaysia and another port in Brunei, and is pushing forward negotiations on cooperation with other ASEAN countries for the common development and construction of international ports.

A China-ASEAN port logistics information center has been built in Guangxi. The Chinese side is cooperating with ASEAN partners such as Singapore's CrimsonLogic Company to jointly build the center.

The author is an associate researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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