Regional trade sees healthy growth despite COVID-19

Digital advances

This year is designated as the China-ASEAN Year of Digital Economy Cooperation, and the pandemic has further highlighted the importance of the digital economy in economic recovery, job creation and improved livelihoods.

On Aug 18, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and ASEAN agreed to build the China-ASEAN Digital Trade Center to boost digital economy cooperation.

Headquartered in Nanning, the center is designated as a digital economy development park, with facilities for digital creative industries, platform operations, big data and the internet of things, among others.

As ASEAN strive to help their pandemic-hit economies, Chinese e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD have provided businesses with access to one of the world's largest markets.

On June 9, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit helped sell nearly 5,000 durians and 20,000 coconuts to Chinese consumers via livestreaming on Alibaba's Tmall.

With China's appetite for the pungent "king of fruits" undiminished by the pandemic, the Thai ministry said durian sales to China reached $1.02 billion in the first half, up 140 percent year-on-year.

Since June last year, Malaysia－also a major durian producer in Southeast Asia－started exporting durians to China as frozen whole fruits, mainly through e-commerce platforms. The Chinese market has helped Malaysian farmers during the economic recovery.

Lu Yee Thing, a durian farmer in Malaysia's central Pahang state, told Xinhua that durian shipments to China have increased to 50 percent of the farm's total exports.

"Many Chinese consumers order our durians directly online," he said."I'm very confident in future business, and I will expand planting areas to meet the demand of the Chinese market."

The digital economy is expected to increase from 1.3 percent of GDP in 2015 to 8.5 percent by 2025, according to Secretary-General of the bloc Lim Jock Hoi.

High-tech alliances

In addition to traditional trade, China and ASEAN are also conducting high-tech industry cooperation.

China-ASEAN Information Harbor Co Ltd, a Nanning-based info-tech company, has been dedicated to China-ASEAN digital and information industrial collaboration over the past few years.

Three international communication submarine cables, 12 international terrestrial optical cables, and 13 key communications nodes have been built to link China and ASEAN, the company said.

Moreover, China and ASEAN have cooperated in satellite navigation before China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System was commissioned on July 31.

China has begun to provide navigation services to some ASEAN economies, and will promote the socioeconomic development of ASEAN, especially in the fields of modern agriculture, digitization and intelligent ports, said Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office.

Relying on each other's advantages, governments and enterprises from China and ASEAN have promoted and realized mutual investment.

The Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park in Malaysia has been jointly developed by the two countries as a major project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

MCKIP and China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park have been identified by the Malaysian and Chinese governments as iconic projects in their bilateral investment.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, accumulated two-way investment between ASEAN and China reached $236.91 billion in 2019.