Dazhong Daily:

In recent years, ASEAN has maintained its position as China's largest trading partner. Could you provide some details about China's imports and exports with ASEAN in the first quarter of this year? And what are the prospects for future trade between China and ASEAN? Thank you.

Lyu Daliang:

Thank you for your questions. China and ASEAN are close neighbors that have long leveraged their respective resource and industrial structure advantages. Through intensive cooperation and joint efforts, their economic and trade relations have grown increasingly close, with trade complementarity continuing to strengthen. In the first quarter of this year, ASEAN remained China's largest trade partner, with total imports and exports reaching 1.71 trillion yuan, increasing by 7.1% year on year. This accounted for 16.6% of China's overall foreign trade.

China and ASEAN are jointly committed to the integrated development of the regional economy. The close connections between their industrial chains have driven the rapid growth in imports and exports of upstream and downstream products. In the first quarter, manufactured goods accounted for 90.1% of trade between China and ASEAN. Notably, China's exports of flat panel display modules, auto parts and lithium batteries to ASEAN all increased by more than 20%. Meanwhile, China's imports from ASEAN of parts for automatic data processing equipment, printed circuits and textile raw materials continued to grow.

China and the 10 ASEAN countries have a combined population of over 2 billion people, accounting for about one-quarter of the global total. The openness, integration and shared development of both sides have continued to unleash market potential, setting an example of cooperation amid the headwinds facing globalization. Taking agricultural cooperation as an example, ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for agricultural products for eight consecutive years since 2017. In the first quarter of this year, China's imports of agricultural products from ASEAN reached 52.65 billion yuan, increasing by 13.8%, while exports to ASEAN were 37.92 billion yuan, up by 1.4%. The advantageous agricultural products of both sides have met each other's diverse needs.

We have made steady progress in building infrastructure connectivity with ASEAN, resulting in smoother trade exchanges and turning both sides' resource strengths into tangible economic gains. In the first quarter of this year, China's imports and exports with ASEAN via rail, road, water and air transportation increased by 37%, 23.2%, 5.8% and 16.4%, respectively. Since its launch more than three years ago, the China-Laos Railway has operated more than 50,000 cargo train services. Meanwhile, rail-sea intermodal routes along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor enable seamless transfers, allowing cargo to move directly between ship and train without delay.

China and ASEAN are connected by mountains and rivers and share close cultural ties with a long history of friendly exchanges. The Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area upgrade negotiations have substantially concluded. Moving forward, both sides will expand mutually beneficial cooperation in emerging areas such as the digital economy, green economy, and supply chain connectivity; strengthen alignment in standards and rules; and jointly promote trade facilitation and inclusive development. We are confident that, through the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, we will achieve new and greater progress in economic and trade cooperation. Thank you.