China is ready to continue building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future, and bring more certainty and positive energy to peace, stability and sustained prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, said Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Hou Yanqi.
Hou made her remarks in talks with media people and researchers in Jakarta , with a theme "China's economic development and expectations for the China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation in 2024."
The ambassador said she believes that China and ASEAN will continue to upgrade economic and trade cooperation and achieve solid progress in their comprehensive strategic partnership. And together they will contribute more to economic globalization in the right direction and make global governance more just and balanced.
ASEAN has remained China's largest trading partner for intermediate goods for many years. China-ASEAN economic and trade relationship has been full of highlights and promising prospects. The bilateral trade volume reached $911.7 billion in 2023.
She noted economic and trade cooperation cannot be achieved without institutional support of free trade and institutional support of the free trade agreement.
She was referring to negotiations on version 3.0 of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) to create broader space for regional development. In 2002, China and ASEAN countries signed the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation as its legal basis for the ACFTA. Both China and ASEAN are members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP and other international groups.
Moreover, China is upgrading its economy with new quality productive forces, which means advanced productivity with innovation playing the leading role, she said.
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