Increased Asean, China trade pushed

An inaugural China-Asean Beijing Economic Forum will be held next week to allow participants to explore business opportunities as Beijing pushes for two-way trade to reach $500 billion by 2015 from $350 billion currently.

The forum will be held on December 16-17 amid pronouncements from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who earlier this year pushed for revving up the exchange of goods in “the world’s biggest free trade area.”

The prime minister meant this in terms of population, with the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets accounting for a combined 2 billion people.

Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said in a statement the advancement of free trade in East Asia follows up on the lessons learned during the global financial crisis.

Asean groups the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

“Some Asean governments seized the opportunity to re-train and restructure their economy, while others identify key areas of investment to strengthen their infrastructure,” Surin said. “By the second half of 2009, many Asean economies had rebounded to post spectacular growth for 2010.”

He added that many Asian government and business leaders have learned from past experience that the best way to tackle a slowdown is not a total shutdown on spending.

“If you do that, you are only perpetuating a recession,” Surin said.

Last October, China and Asean unveiled plans to build a two-building complex dubbed China-Asean Plaza in Nanning City to help boost trade.

According to the Jakarta-based Asean Secretariat, the Plaza – described as a “concrete landmark” of growing economic ties between the neighbors – will serve as an exhibition and marketing venue as well as a logistics base for goods from both sides.

The launch of the planned trade center coincided with the 8th China-Asean Expo held in the same city, which registered transactions worth $1.8 billion or an increase of 5.6 percent from the previous year’s volume.—Ronnel W. Domingo