At the invitation of the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC), Mr. Ma Mingqiang, Secretary General of ASEAN-China Centre, led the delegation of ASEAN Economic and Commercial Counsellors in Beijing, namely Mr. Aung Kyaw Than, Commercial Counsellor of the Myanmar Embassy, Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan, Economic Counsellor of the Vietnamese Embassy, and Ms Bun Chamnan, Commercial Attaché of the Cambodian Embassy, to attend the 3rd China Marketing Conference (CMC) in Jimo City, a satellite city of Qingdao, Shandong Province, from 30 to 31 October 2014.
Organised by CGCC and themed on “Coordination and innovation: opening up a new vista for the Chinese market”, the opening ceremony of the conference was graced by Mr. Zhang Zhigang, Chairman of CGCC, and H.E. Mr. Juan Carlos Capunay, Peruvian Ambassador to China.
During the conference, SG Ma Mingqiang signed the “MOU on Cooperation in Setting up ASEAN Products Trade Centres (APC) Throughout China” on behalf of ACC with Mr. Luo Yulong, SG of the Marketing Committee of CGCC. Under the MOU, ACC and CGCC will make joint efforts to set up more APCs in selected hub cities with considerable populations and higher level of consumption, with a view to facilitating ASEAN products’ access to the Chinese market and promoting trade growth between ASEAN and China. The first two cities proposed by CGCC for exploration under the MOU include Fuyang in Anhui Province and Deyang in Sichuan Province.
In his keynote speech at the International Cooperation Forum held within the frame of the Conference, SG Ma Mingqiang said that thanks to the immediate geographical proximity, strong economic complimentarity and closer political relations between ASEAN and China, the trade between ASEAN and China more than tripled in the first decade of the 21 century and CAFTA has been spurring further growth since it came into effect in 2010. Following this momentum, China’s trade volume with ASEAN is bound to overtake those with EU and US, thus establishing ASEAN as China’s biggest trade partner in the foreseeable future. Mr. Ma also noted that the growth of China’s investment to ASEAN is outpacing that of ASEAN’s to China, thus reversing the South-to-North direction of investment of the past decades. SG Ma Mingqiang emphasised that successful Chinese entrepreneurs should seize the CAFTA opportunity for their second take-off in their careers.
Counsellor Aung Kyaw Than of the Myanmar Embassy and Ms Bun Chamnan of the Cambodian Embassy also made presentations on the economic and trade cooperation of both countries with China, and both countries’ investment environment of at the Forum.