Participants of the three-day virtual gathering that concluded Thursday, including leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members as well as China, Japan and South Korea, agreed to enhance cooperation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, promote economic recovery and seek sustainable development.
TO ENHANCE ASEAN COMMUNITY BUILDING
During the 38th and 39th ASEAN summits and related summits, ASEAN leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen the ASEAN Community as well as ASEAN's centrality and unity to address common challenges as well as to advance ASEAN's comprehensive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
They agreed to push forward a wide range of initiatives to strengthen the region's preparedness for future challenges, including the "ASEAN SHIELD," a scheme for better institutional coordination to enhance the region's preparedness and response to future emergencies and disasters; efforts to respond to and recover from COVID-19, including work to procure vaccines as well as cooperation to address mental health issues and nurture a Care Economy for the protection and welfare of the people of ASEAN, which are important building blocks to realize an ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and beyond.
Noting that tourism is one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, ASEAN leaders highlighted the importance of strengthening regional and international cooperation to safely restart and rebuild ASEAN tourism industry as a significant contributor to economic and social advancements and a major source of employment, income and livelihood for people and local communities in the region.
"ASEAN Community-building will always be a work in progress, and it is thus vital to remain committed to upholding multilateralism and a strong regional architecture to enable meaningful progress for generations to come," Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, who is also the ASEAN chairman for 2021, said at the closing ceremony, before handing over the ASEAN chairmanship to Samdech Techo Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia.
"As the chair of ASEAN in 2022, Cambodia will steer ASEAN's collective efforts to accomplish our important tasks, especially expediting the building process of an equitable, strong, and inclusive ASEAN Community, in line with the core spirit of ASEAN: One Vision, One Identity and One Community," Hun Sen said.
CLOSER COMMUNITY WITH SHARED FUTURE
Since they established a dialogue relationship in 1991, China and ASEAN have stood together and supported each other through hard times. They have jointly coped with the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS pandemic, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2008 global financial crisis.
With their meaningful, substantive and mutually beneficial partnership, China and ASEAN will play a bigger and leading role in boosting regional cooperation, development and stability, said Natee Taweesrifuengfung, president of the Thailand-based Siam Think Tank.
Again, during the fight against COVID-19, they supported each other by providing vaccines, medical supplies and by sharing prevention and treatment experience. China has provided ASEAN countries with more than 300 million COVID-19 vaccines, and has pledged to carry out vaccine cooperation with more ASEAN members.
Most of the 21st century problems, such as migration, transnational crimes, climate change and pandemics, require solutions that go beyond borders, said Austin Ong, researcher of Manila-based think tank Integrated Development Studies Institute.
"Bridges of communication, understanding, friendship will be more critical than ever. This is where ASEAN and China can blaze new trails together," the expert said.
China and ASEAN shall further unleash the energy and potential of their relations with more active steps and more innovative measures, and build a closer community with a shared future for the benefit of the over 2 billion people in 11 countries, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Deng Xijun told Xinhua in a written interview.
TO GROW TOGETHER, PROSPER TOGETHER
Rebooting economic growth was high on the agenda of the three-day meetings as leaders tried to draw plans and strategies to bring economic activity back to pre-pandemic levels and foster new growth drivers.
ASEAN countries would look to China to fuel their economic recovery as China is a great example of containing COVID-19 while bringing economic activity back in full force, said Malaysian political analyst Azmi Hassan.
"ASEAN as a whole is looking keenly towards China for its own economic revitalization," he said.
Thanks to the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (FTA), tariffs have been coming down, driving a brisk growth in bilateral trade. Shaking off the pandemic impacts, China and ASEAN became each other's largest trading partner for the first time last year. Bilateral trade maintained growth momentum in 2021, surging 31.1 percent year-on-year to 630.54 billion U.S. dollars in the first three quarters.
Two-way investment has also been booming and exceeded 310 billion dollars as of June this year in cumulative terms.
Looking ahead, analysts expect greater regional integration in terms of market, supply chains and infrastructure with several supporting agendas, including the ASEAN-China FTA, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Belt and Road Initiative.
"China and ASEAN countries need to harness our strengths of geographical proximity and industrial complementarity to pursue regional economic integration at a higher level," said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the 24th China-ASEAN leaders' meeting via video link.
To accelerate regional economic integration, Li announced at the meeting that China will work with ASEAN to officially launch a joint feasibility study to further enhance the China-ASEAN FTA.
At the series of meetings, leaders of China and ASEAN agreed to push forward an early implementation of the RCEP, the trade pact between the 10 ASEAN member states plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand which was signed last November.
As the pandemic continues to weigh on global economic growth, the mega trade pact, once taking into effect, will not only inject new impetus to China-ASEAN cooperation as well as regional economic recovery and integration, but also boost the world economy, said Wang Liping, minister counsellor for Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand.
Leaders of China and ASEAN also stressed the need to strengthen cooperation to enhance the connectivity and resilience of supply chains in the region by exploring "the development of economic corridors, as well as economic, trade, and industrial parks."
With the development of various regional mechanisms such as the RCEP as well as the ASEAN Plus China (10+1) and ASEAN Plus China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (10+3) platforms, the region will enjoy common development and more vibrant growth, Natee said.
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