Xi's speech on China-ASEAN ties injects vitality into future cooperation

BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's virtual keynote speech on China-ASEAN ties delivered on Friday bears high relevance and will further enrich bilateral cooperation, experts from the ASEAN countries have said.

Xi on Friday addressed the opening ceremony of the 17th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit via video, laying out four proposals.

The suggestions, experts believed, come at a critical time and will inject great impetus into the China-ASEAN community with a shared future with increasingly deeper cooperation witnessed across the board.

Reviewing the speedy mutual assistance to each other amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi said that China and ASEAN "took on the challenge in solidarity," voicing hope for deeper cooperation towards "an early and full recovery of the regional economy."

The president also called upon the two sides to further synergize development plans and enhance cooperation in various fields, especially innovation in science and technology as well as the digital economy.

Vo Dai Luoc, former head of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences believed that Xi's proposals are suitable to the current status of China-ASEAN cooperation relations and can also address the needs for their ties in the future.

"Boosting economic and trade cooperation with China will create a strong drive for the recovery of the ASEAN in the time to come," he said.

Echoing Xi's suggestions, the expert said he would love to see more efforts by both sides to promote cooperation in sci-tech innovation and the digital economy, which "will have a key role to development in the near future of every single country."

"Chinese President Xi Jinping described China and ASEAN's vision of progress from economic and trade cooperation and technical innovation, which is very important for both sides," said George Siy, head of the Philippine think-tank Integrated Development Studies Institute.

Describing them as the guiding values in ASEAN, the expert said they will "allow the complementary growth of China and ASEAN countries to reinforce each other", to "recover faster from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to pursue common growth."

Khemmani Pholsena, Lao Minister for Industry and Commerce and Chairperson of Laos-China Cooperation Commission noted that the theme of international cooperation against COVID-19 and cooperation in advancing digitalization of trade under this new era is best to be discussed during this period of time.

"We are looking forward to a golden age of E-commerce with new opportunities for us all supported by our close cooperation," Pholsena said.

Chheang Vannarith, president of the Phnom Penh-based Asian Vision Institute, said the annual ASEAN-China Expo is one of the key features of ASEAN-China partnership and deepening ASEAN-China economic cooperation contributes to regional economic recovery and the enhancement of an open, inclusive and rules-based multilateral system.

"Cambodia and China share the same world view on promoting multilateralism as the basis for peace, security and prosperity," he said.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.