CNBC:

I have two questions. How did cross-border e-commerce imports and exports perform in the second quarter of 2023 and this June? Also, with the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry, what influence does it have on China's imports and exports to Southeast Asia? Thank you.

Lyu Daliang:

Thank you for your questions. I will first answer your question about cross-border e-commerce. In mid-June, we detailed the growth of China's cross-border e-commerce in last year at the 2023 China Langfang International Economic and Trade Fair and released relevant data. Preliminary customs statistics show that in the first half of 2023, China's cross-border e-commerce continued to showcase its strength and potential in “buying globally and selling globally.” The import and export value of cross-border e-commerce grew by 16% year on year to 1.1 trillion yuan. Exports rose by 19.9% to 821 billion yuan, and imports increased by 5.7% to 276 billion yuan, reflecting steady growth, improved structure, and enhanced competitiveness.

On this occasion, I'd like to clarify that the data sources and compilation methods for cross-border e-commerce statistics differ significantly from those used for traditional foreign trade. Currently, there is no international statistical rules on cross-border e-commerce. China is one of the first countries to develop such statistics. We have improved our statistical system and methods through multiple pilot surveys. According to the latest statistical survey system for cross-border e-commerce, we publish our statistics on a semi-annual and annual basis.

In response to your second question, the ASEAN is China's largest trading partner. In the first half of 2023, China's imports and exports to ASEAN increased by 5.4% year on year to reach 3.08 trillion yuan. This represents 15.3% of the country's total imports and exports during the same period, an increase of half a percentage point compared to the same period last year. The highlights are in three areas as follows:

First, bilateral cooperation has become closer. Since the beginning of this year, China has expanded its economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN. The second and third rounds of negotiations for version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area were held in Thailand and China in April and June, respectively. The RCEP entered into force for the Philippines on June 2, 2023, marking the pact's implementation by all 15 members, and providing a significant boost to regional economic integration. In the first half of 2023, the proportion of China's imports and exports with ASEAN in its total imports and exports with other RCEP members increased to 50.5%.

Second, the role of cross-border channels has become more pronounced. According to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., in the first half of the year, the rail-sea intermodal trains along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in western China transported a total of 424,000 TEUs of goods, a rise of 10.5%. During the same period, customs supervised and inspected a total of 2.146 million metric tons of imported and exported goods on the China-Laos Railway, up by 194.4% on a yearly basis. These two cross-border channels have continued to expand China's trade reach with ASEAN, driving rapid growth of imports and exports to ASEAN in regions along the new routes. In the first half of the year, imports and exports of regions along the routes to ASEAN reached 438.65 billion yuan, an increase of 21.4%.

Third, the scale of China's imports of agricultural products from ASEAN continues to expand. Agricultural cooperation is a key area of China-ASEAN economic and trade relations, and an increasing number of agricultural products from ASEAN countries have entered the Chinese market. In the first half of the year, China imported 125.08 billion yuan of agricultural products from ASEAN, a rise of 7.5%, which was 6.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of China's imports from ASEAN. The import performance of some specific agricultural products was impressive; for example, fruit imports amounted to 40.54 billion yuan, a 24.1% increase, with fresh durian and pineapple imports rising by 65% and 24.1%, respectively. Palm oil imports reached 10.91 billion yuan, a surge of 120.5%.

As each other's largest trading partners, China and ASEAN share a solid foundation for cooperation and substantial development potential. With regional economic integration deepening, cooperation areas continuing to expand, and trade exchanges becoming closer in the future, bilateral trade is expected to continue maintaining a favorable trend. Thank you.