This year, the World Business Leaders Roundtable will conduct trend forecasts and in-depth dialogues around RCEP——
RCEP: Regional trade and investment ballast effect emerges
Southeast Net, September 8th (Fujian Daily reporter You Xiaochun)
Keeping an eye on the frontier of regional integration and helping the development of regional trade and investment, on the 7th, the 21st World Business Leaders Roundtable was held in Xiamen. The theme of this year’s conference is the new vision of RCEP regional development. It invites dignitaries from RCEP member countries, diplomatic envoys in China, international business organizations, Fortune 500 companies, and industry leaders to conduct in-depth dialogues around RCEP trends and promote RCEP. Economic and trade cooperation between member states.
The RCEP, which came into effect on January 1 this year, covers about 30% of the world‘s population, about 30% of the total economic output and about 30% of the total trade volume. It is the world‘s largest free trade area. Since the implementation of RCEP, the “circle of friends” has continued to expand, including major trading countries such as ASEAN, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Data show that from January to July this year, China’s imports and exports with the other 14 RCEP member countries increased by 7.5% year-on-year.
At present, countries around the world are in a critical period to fight the epidemic together and help the world economy recover. Ke Liangdong, Vice President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the RCEP member countries have close economic ties and frequent business exchanges. The implementation of RCEP has greatly strengthened the trade between member countries. Investment cooperation has become the ballast stone for the stable development of regional trade and investment.
“RCEP is a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and reciprocal regional free trade agreement, and it is also the most important achievement of East Asian economic integration in the past 20 years.” Zhao Ping, vice president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said, “Since this year, The global economic growth is slowing down, and trade and investment are also facing great challenges. Against this background, people have greater expectations for RCEP and regional economic integration.”
In this regard, Robin van Poonbrobeck, executive director of business development of the World Trade Center Association, agreed. He believes that in recent years, the trend of protectionism and non-globalization has risen, and the development of the multilateral free trade system is facing huge challenges. RCEP is one of the few exceptions. “The implementation of RCEP shows China’s determination to further deepen its economic integration with other countries in the world, and will surely bring huge benefits to RCEP local enterprises including China,” said Robin van Poonbrobeck.
From January to July this year, the trade volume between China and ASEAN reached 544.9 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%, accounting for 15% of China’s total foreign trade import and export. Guo Chuanwei, director of the Trade and Investment Department of the China-ASEAN Center, said that this is not only the latest achievement of China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, but also a splendid report card handed over by RCEP. Guo Chuanwei said that China and ASEAN took the lead in establishing the largest free trade area among developing countries, and are jointly promoting the signing and high-quality implementation of RCEP, carrying out practical economic and trade cooperation, and promoting the liberalization and facilitation of regional trade and investment.
On March 18 this year, RCEP officially came into effect for Malaysia. Mohamed Salwadi, the investment consul of the Consulate General of Malaysia in Guangzhou, said that since 2009, China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner, and even under the epidemic, the trade volume between China and Malaysia has been booming. In the first quarter of 2022, the trade volume between China and Malaysia has reached 10.8 billion US dollars, and Chinese investment in Malaysia has reached more than 700 billion US dollars. “The signing of RCEP is an important milestone for Malaysia, which can benefit greatly from this huge market integration process.”
In the RCEP agreement, the e-commerce chapter has a total of 17 clauses, which is the first time that the Asia-Pacific region has reached e-commerce-related rules. The meeting on that day discussed topics such as “promoting the development of digital trade and exploring new economic growth points”.
“Some large companies in RCEP countries have expressed major concerns about the development of the digital economy. My suggestion is to improve the level mechanism construction of digital economy partners, including development planning, development policies and project construction, and expand cooperation channels and expand information through mechanism construction. source.” Xu Ningning, executive director of the China-ASEAN Business Council, said, “We will effectively implement the e-commerce part of RCEP, and we will work with other RCEP member countries to promote digital economic cooperation, and use mechanism construction to reflect the level of RCEP industry cooperation.”
Since its inception in 2002, the World Business Leaders Roundtable has been held for 21 sessions so far, aiming to promote the development of regional trade and investment. The conference has tracked a number of hot topics, from regional finance to supply chain, from cross-border e-commerce to the artificial intelligence trend leading the world. This roundtable meeting was hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Organizing Committee of the China International Fair for Investment and Trade, and co-hosted by the World Trade Center Association.
At this roundtable meeting, CCPIT Xiamen signed a memorandum of cooperation with 4 institutions including RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Perth World Trade Center, and Indonesian Chinese Chamber of Commerce Sishui Association. Data shows that Xiamen’s imports and exports to other RCEP member countries currently account for 1/3 of Xiamen’s total foreign trade imports and exports, and Xiamen’s investment in RCEP member countries is also increasing day by day.