Recently, a Chinese business delegation of 100 people visited Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The number of members of the business delegation reached 150, of which more than half were at the chairman and general manager level. This visit attracted much attention from all parties. It was the largest business opportunity matching visit with the theme of seizing new opportunities brought by the implementation of RCEP, demonstrating that regional cooperation is in the ascendant.
The RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee (RICC) took the lead in organizing this visit. RICC is a regional international business cooperation mechanism. During the visit, the “First RCEP Business Opportunity Matchmaking Meeting (China-Thailand)” was held in Bangkok, attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce of Thailand. At the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, the “ASEAN Business Opportunity Promotion Conference” was held. For the first time this year, the ASEAN Secretariat’s conference hall was opened to a national business delegation for a meeting. The ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General and six senior officials of the ASEAN Secretariat introduced the current status of ASEAN’s economic development, the action plan being implemented, and cooperation concerns. The “RCEP Business Opportunity Matchmaking Meeting (China-Vietnam)” was held in Hanoi.
At the three business opportunity matching conferences, economic and trade officials, industry association leaders, and entrepreneur representatives spoke one after another, introducing and sharing national economic and trade policies, industry support priorities, and trade and investment opportunities. As many as a thousand Chinese and foreign people attended the meetings, and enterprises actively connected and negotiated, reached multiple cooperation consensuses and signed agreements.
The Chinese Ambassador to Thailand, the Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam, the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, the Minister of Industry of Indonesia, the Deputy Secretary-General of the ASEAN Secretariat in charge of economy, the President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and others met with relevant members of the delegation, exchanged views on enhancing economic and trade cooperation, and expressed appreciation for the visit of the large business delegation.
Xu Ningning, Chairman of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, has been engaged in promoting economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN for more than 30 years. He said that he was very pleased to see that China and ASEAN have been each other’s largest trading partners for four consecutive years and continue to be each other’s largest trading partners since the beginning of this year. The proportion of China’s trade with ASEAN in China’s foreign trade and ASEAN’s foreign trade has increased, and more and more Chinese companies are investing in ASEAN. The economic and trade cooperation between the two sides shows a comprehensive, in-depth, active, close and mutually beneficial cooperation trend.
Xu Ningning pointed out that the purpose of this visit is to implement the China-Thailand Joint Statement on Building a More Stable, More Prosperous and More Sustainable Community of Shared Future, the China-Indonesia Joint Statement on Deepening All-round Strategic Cooperation, and the China-Vietnam Joint Statement on Further Deepening and Enhancing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Building a Strategic China-Vietnam Community of Shared Future, as well as the consensus reached by the leaders and governments of both sides.
Liu Xin, Secretary-General of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, said that he believed that with the active actions of multiple parties, the cooperative development brought about by the opening of the RCEP region will be promoted through mutual visits, inspections, docking and negotiations, and the economic and trade cooperation in the RCEP region will be closer, so as to achieve common development and meet challenges. The RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee will continue to help all parties seize the new opportunities brought about by the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).