Beijing Review – August 15, 2019

22 BEIJING REVIEW AUGUST 15, 2019 http://www.bjreview.com

WORLD

O

ne in every three banana s grown by
Filipino farmers was shipped to China
in 2018, the year China surpassed
Japan to become the biggest importer of ba-
nanas from the Philippines, with an amount
totaling 1.2 million tons, accounting for 37
percent of the country’s overall export vol-
ume.
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ing trade and economic ties between China
and Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) countries. In recent years, China has
increased imports of goods from ASEAN, such
as civet coffee, mangosteen and palm oil.
China has been the largest trading partner of
ASEAN for 10 consecutive years, while ASEAN
replaced the U.S. as China’s second largest
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Moving forward, more cooperation and
progress are expected between China and
ASEAN as the parties agreed to forge closer
ties at the China-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’
Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, on July 31.
During the meeting, China and ASEAN
members reached an agreement on align-
ing the Belt and Road Initiative with the
Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025
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to safeguard multilateralism against the
background of rising trade protectionism
and agreed to continue efforts to set up
regional rules, especially to conclude of
the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South
China Sea.

Docking strategies

Many ASEAN member states are important
partners of the Belt and Road Initiative. In
fact, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed
the construction of the 21st-Century
Maritime Silk Road during a speech in the
Indonesian parliament in October 2013.
Since enhancing infrastructure connectivity
has been the goal of both the Belt and Road
Initiative and the MPAC, there is huge poten-
tial for the docking of the two development
strategies.

“The alignment between the Belt and

Road Initiative proposed by China and the

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Song Qingrun, an associate researcher on

ASEAN studies with the China Institutes of

Contemporary International Relations, told

Beijing Review.

Among ASEAN countries, there is grow-

ing recognition of a national and regional

infrastructure deficit, with many states un-

able to independently fill the infrastructure

gap either financially or sometimes even

technically. Thus, China’s success in infra-

structure building offers a contemporary

example of what can be achieved.

For instance, Thailand is promoting the

Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), with the

aim of developing its eastern seaboard into a

leading ASEAN economic zone. It approved

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agreed to link it with the Belt and Road

Initiative.

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or will be implemented soon to enhance

interconnectivity, which will facilitate the

human, goods and investment exchange

flow between China and ASEAN,” Song

continued.

The China-Laos Economic Corridor, span-

ning southwest China’s Yunnan Province

and Laos’s southern region, has progressed

smoothly. The construction of the China-

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ing over 414 km, is mostly completed. The

Saysettha Development Zone, which is also

part of the economic corridor, has attracted

57 companies and is estimated to create

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end of the year.

“With the building of railway and road

networks, connectivity within Laos and with

regional countries will be improved, which

will contribute to turning Laos from a land-

locked country into a land-connected one,”

Jiang Zaidong, Chinese Ambassador to Laos,

said.

Positive Vibes

More cooperation between China and ASEAN

countries promoted at joint foreign

ministers’ meeting By Wen Qing