Looking at the Vitality and Resilience of China's Economy from ASEAN Characteristic Agricultural Products in the Shopping Cart | China | Transcript | Economy

Recently, China's economic performance report for the first half of the year has been released one after another, according to international online reports. Faced with a complex and severe external environment, what resilience and vitality does the "transcript" demonstrate in China's economy?

"The demand for durian is too great. I learned from my client that the containers were quickly cleared upon arrival at the port. I feel that no matter how much durian is supplied to the Chinese market, it seems that it can be sold." This person, who is lamenting the huge demand for durian in the Chinese market, is Elvin, the head of a durian plantation in Malaysia. Behind Elvin's feelings is the strong consumption power of the Chinese market. As the world's largest consumer market for durian, in recent years, the acceptance and demand for durian in the Chinese market have surged. Durians from Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia have entered the Chinese dining table with fresh fruits, frozen, and other methods.

The recent report on import and export performance in the first half of the year released by the General Administration of Customs also confirms this phenomenon. Data shows that in the first half of this year, imports of characteristic agricultural products such as durian and pineapple from ASEAN countries increased significantly. According to the spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, Lv Daliang, "Data shows that in the first half of this year, China imported agricultural products from ASEAN worth 125.08 billion yuan, an increase of 7.5%, which is 6.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of China's imports from ASEAN. Among them, fruit imports amounted to 40.54 billion yuan, an increase of 24.1%, while fresh durian and pineapple increased by 65% and 24.1% respectively."

In the transcript released by the General Administration of Customs, palm oil imports from ASEAN increased significantly by 120.5%. As one of the world's major oilseeds, palm oil is widely used in industries such as chemical, food, daily chemical products, and pharmaceuticals. In the first half of this year, China imported palm oil worth 10.91 billion yuan from ASEAN countries. Malaysia is one of the world's major palm oil producing regions. According to Bavis, the Director of the Malaysian Palm Oil Authority, through cooperation with Chinese enterprises and relying on the western land sea new channel, Malaysia's related industries have felt the huge business opportunities and vitality hidden in the Chinese market. "The Malaysian Palm Oil Authority has signed a supply chain strategic cooperation agreement with China's land sea new channel company, which will help improve the supply chain and allow more goods to be shipped to China, especially in the western region. This will be applied in China's oil and fat chemical, food, pharmaceutical, feed and other fields, and we have found many opportunities in these areas."

Dynamic trade cannot be separated from the strong driving force of cross-border channels. According to data from China Railway Group, in the first half of this year, the rail sea intermodal trains of the Western Land Sea New Channel transported a total of 424000 TEUs of goods, an increase of 10.5%. The effect of the China Laos Railway is also continuing to show. In the first half of this year, the customs supervised and released 2.146 million tons of goods imported and exported by the China Laos Railway, an increase of 194.4% year on year. In the first half of the year, the import and export of the region along the route to ASEAN reached 438.65 billion yuan, an increase of 21.4%. In addition, cross-border e-commerce, as a "cloud based" channel, also provides new links for agricultural product trade. At present, Zanda, one of the largest online shopping websites in Southeast Asia, has established a cross-border e-commerce innovation service center in Nanning, Guangxi. More than a hundred cross-border e-commerce enterprises have also landed in the China Free Trade Zone, building a "cloud based" channel for agricultural product trade between China and ASEAN. A "sales anchor" from Thailand tasted the sweetness and saw business opportunities after a live broadcast of durian in Thailand. "The Chinese market is very large, and it sells quickly and can sell more in China. China's purchasing power is very strong."

The smooth flow of channels has allowed specialty agricultural products such as durian from Thailand, cat poop coffee from Indonesia, cashews from Cambodia, passion fruit from Vietnam, and palm oil from Malaysia to enter the Chinese market. Chinese made products covering various aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation are also continuously expanding into the world along cross-border channels. Bloomberg reported that Krishna Srinivasan, Director of the Asia Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund, wrote on social media: "The recovery of the Chinese economy is driving regional economic development. We expect that the increase in consumer demand in China will have a positive spillover effect on regional growth."

China and ASEAN are each other's largest trading partners, with imports and exports of 3.08 trillion yuan to ASEAN in the first half of the year. Xu Liping, Director of the Southeast Asian Research Center at the Asia Pacific and Global Strategy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that mutual benefit and win-win cooperation are the key words in China ASEAN economic and trade exchanges. The increase in trade volume reflects the deep integration of the industrial and value chains of both sides. In the future, China and ASEAN will continue to deepen their cooperation in two-way investment, infrastructure, and international production capacity based on their respective advantages, benefiting the people of both sides. "Currently, China and ASEAN are conducting negotiations on the China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, and RCEP has further unleashed the dividends of trade and investment, providing an infinite and broad prospect for future trade and investment cooperation between China and ASEAN."