Economy

ASEAN-China FTA bearing fruit: official

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-29 15:19

SINGAPORE: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)?effort in engaging pro-actively with China in free trade agreement (FTA) is bearing fruit, an ASEAN official said on Thursday.

Sundram Pushpanathan, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for the ASEAN Economic Community, spoke at the ASEAN Roundtable 2010 that ASEAN-China trade reached over $192 billion last year, and is growing at an annual rate between 24 percent to 30 percent.

He said that ASEAN has positioned itself well for the boom in China and India being their FTA partners as the growth pole shifts to East Asia, adding that ASEAN will grow along with these economic giants and strengthen trade and investment ties.

He said that the growing middle class in China will demand more goods and services, where ASEAN will gain first comer advantage to supply.

"If you want to get into a FTA, you will of course input competition," Pushpanathan said, noting that ASEAN should continue to improve its competitiveness edge to leverage on the FTA.

The ASEAN-China?FTA took effect on Jan 1, 2010.