China-ASEAN FTA upgrade boon to trade

Driven by increasingly close economic ties between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the recent signing of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol, government officials and business executives said the partnership's growth potential will be further unleashed in the years ahead.

They noted that a growing number of ASEAN companies are accelerating their expansion in the Chinese market, viewing the country's higher-level opening-up — a priority for national development over the next five years — and the platform of the China International Import Expo as key enablers to deepen practical cooperation in trade, investment and industrial-chain development.

Speaking during the eighth CIIE in Shanghai, Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Malaysia's partnership with China goes beyond trade, rooted instead in mutual trust, shared prosperity and strong people-to-people connections.

The Southeast Asian nation has launched its largest-ever trade promotion mission in China with the opening of the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS) in Shanghai.

The event was held in conjunction with the eighth CIIE at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) from Wednesday to Monday.

The MIHAS in Shanghai aims to generate total trade of $600 million, building on the momentum of the same event held in Dubai in 2024, which generated $528 million in sales.

"With China and ASEAN having signed the Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol in Kuala Lumpur last month, our partnership now extends beyond traditional goods by embracing digital trade, green technology and supply chain resilience, all key drivers of the next phase of regional growth," he said.

Thanks to their complementary industrial structures, strong supply chain connectivity and expanding regional market demand, China's trade with ASEAN, its largest trading partner, hit 6.18 trillion yuan ($868 billion) in the first 10 months of this year, up 9.1 percent year-on-year and accounting for 16.6 percent of China's total foreign trade value, said the General Administration of Customs.

Eager to enhance its market presence in China, Asia Pulp and Paper Co (APP), an Indonesia-based paper product manufacturer and an eight-time participant at the CIIE, showcased a wide range of eco-friendly paper products — covering household, cultural and industrial paper — highlighting their diverse applications from daily life to the workplace.

Zhai Jingli, deputy CEO of Sinar Mas Group-APP, the parent company of APP China, said the CIIE serves as an important window for China's high-standard opening-up. Over the past eight years, APP has actively participated in and benefited from the expo's spillover effects, witnessing China's steady expansion of openness.

Under its plan, APP will develop and launch a variety of application-oriented products in China, including biodegradable paper tableware such as paper knives, forks and spoons, as well as various types of paper food containers designed for fast food and desserts.

During his meeting with a delegation led by Yang Zhiwen — vice-governor of Qinghai province — in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Monday, Pov Somnang, special assistant to the ASEAN secretary-general, said that economic and trade ties between China and ASEAN are tightening as integration deepens across the region.

Under the frameworks of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, there is broad space and great potential for collaboration between ASEAN countries and Qinghai province, said Pov, who is also president of the Promotion of Economic and Trade Cambodia-ASEAN Association.

"We will give full play to our role as a bridge and link, actively building platforms for business matchmaking between the two sides," he added.

Through hosting business forums, organizing enterprise visits and carrying out project negotiations, the association aims to promote the precise alignment of Qinghai's advantageous industrial resources with market demand in ASEAN countries, and accelerate the transformation of cooperation consensus into tangible project outcomes, said Pov.