The attendance of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the Vietnamese delegation at the 20th CAEXPO and CABIS is of great significance as the year 2023 marks the celebration of the 15th anniversary of Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and the 20-year journey of the CAEXPO and CABIS.
Leading trade and investment partner
CAEXPO and CABIS are important and prestigious events on economic, trade and investment cooperation of the ASEAN-China business community. After 20 editions, they have become symbols and guiding flags of economic, trade, and investment cooperation between China and ASEAN.
The past 20 years have witnessed great strides that have gone beyond anyone's imagination in ASEAN-China economic cooperation.
Accordingly, the bilateral trade, starting from 78.2 billion USD in 2003, has increased 13 times to reach 975.6 billion USD in 2022, making China and ASEAN each other’s largest trade partners and among their most important investment partners.
Host country China welcomed the delegations from ASEAN countries, especially Vietnam, with great respect, friendliness, and thoughtfulness.
Upon his arrival at the airport, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was welcomed with a traditional performance imbued with the cultural identity of Guangxi Province.
For Vietnamese localities and businesses, the participation at CAEXPO plays an important role in advertising and promoting trade, economic cooperation, and investment between Vietnam and China, especially Guangxi Province, and ASEAN.
The trade turnover between Guangxi and Vietnam accounts for two-thirds of the total trade turnover between Guangxi and ASEAN, and accounts for half of the total trade turnover between Guangxi and other countries in the world.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pressed the button to inaugurate the Vietnamese pavilion at the 20th CAEXPO. Among the participating ASEAN countries, Vietnam’s pavilion had the largest scale with 250 booths covering an area of nearly 5,000 sq.m, displaying high-quality Vietnamese products and services. The pavilion attracted great attention from international visitors, especially Chinese people.
In his opening speech at CAEXPO 2023, which featured the participation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang and leaders of ASEAN countries, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that in the context of the slow recovery of the regional and global economy and the increased requirements of cooperation, ASEAN and China need to strengthen trade and investment cooperation.
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Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visits the Vietnamese trade pavilion (Photo: VGP) |
The Vietnamese Government leader stressed that Vietnam wishes to continue with China and ASEAN countries to conclude negotiations on upgrading version 3.0 of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement, upgrade road and rail transport infrastructure connections, and pilot a smart border gate model to better meet the need of investment, business, trade, culture, tourism of the business community and people of each country.
The Prime Minister also proposed that the two sides strongly promote bilateral trade for balanced and sustainable development, foster strategic connection to develop both hard and soft infrastructure, and strengthen people-to-people exchange and cooperation in culture, tourism, and aviation, while enhancing collaboration in emerging fields and creating new growth drivers such as the green economy, digital economy, circular economy, new materials, and sharing economy.
ASEAN and Chinese business communities need to learn, exploit, and help each other to take advantage of opportunities from CAEXPO and CABIS, turning potential and cooperation opportunities into specific results and products, he stated.
Top priority in strategic cooperation
Attending CAEXPO and CABIS 2023 is also a favourable opportunity for Vietnam to strengthen friendship and multifaceted cooperation with neighbouring countries.
During his stay in Nanning city, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
While underscoring the importance of the Vietnam-China relations in the overall foreign policy of each country, PM Chinh affirmed that the Vietnamese Party and State attach great importance to the development of a friendly, stable, and healthy cooperative relationship with China a strategic choice and top priority in Vietnam's foreign policy.
In reply, Chinese Premier Li asserted that China always considers its relationship with Vietnam a priority in the overall framework of its neighbourhood policy.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (L) and Chinese Premier Li Qiang. (Photo: VGP) |
China backs Vietnam’s efforts to build and successfully develop its socialist-oriented market economy that suits the country's situation, and stands ready to keep expanding and deepening bilateral substantial cooperation, he said, speaking highly of Vietnam's active and effective participation in and its important contributions to the CAEXPO and CABIS.
The Vietnamese Government leader highlighted the need for both sides to leverage geographical advantages and complement each other to nurture substantive cooperation in balanced and sustainable development areas.
He proposed that China accelerate the market opening for Vietnam's agricultural and aquatic products, and jointly improve customs efficiency to prevent goods congestion at border crossings.
He affirmed that Vietnam is ready to create favourable conditions for Chinese firms to do business in the country, especially regarding large-scale, high-quality, and modern technology projects that represent China's level of development, thus bringing about economic and social benefits.
China backs Vietnam’s efforts to build and successfully develop its socialist-oriented market economy that suits the country's situation, and stands ready to keep expanding and deepening bilateral substantial cooperation.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang
While appreciating Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's proposals, the Chinese Premier affirmed that China will continue opening its market for Vietnamese goods, especially quality agricultural and aquatic products, expand the scale and improve the efficiency of trade by upgrading border infrastructure, policy connectivity, and the building of smart border crossings.
Attending CAEXPO also provided an opportunity to strengthen multifaceted relations between Vietnam and Guangxi.
At the meeting with Secretary of Guangxi Party Committee Liu Ning, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his thanks to Guangxi for preserving relic sites related to President Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary activities in the province.
He recalled Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's recent tour of the border gate area in Lang Son Province and planting of a "friendship" tree there, Chinh said the act manifests importance and top priority attached by the Vietnamese Party and State to the Vietnam-China relations.
He said he hopes that Guangxi will continue playing a pioneering role in promoting substantive exchanges and cooperation between the two nations.
For his part, Secretary Liu Ning affirmed that Guangxi will continue to open its market and create favourable conditions for Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products, improve customs efficiency, and step up railway and road transportation connectivity.
At his meeting with leaders of Chinese major conglomerates in the fields of technology, energy, and infrastructure development, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated their business operations in Vietnam, and asserted that the Vietnamese Government will offer all possible support to them to effectively, successfully, and sustainably conduct business in the country.
Leaders of corporations highly appreciated that the investment and business environment in Vietnam has been increasingly improved, and expressed their aspiration to expand investment and business in Vietnam.
In less than 27 hours of staying in Nanning, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had engaged in a range of effective and successful foreign affairs activities, which brought about many positive results, contributing to consolidating political trust and bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and China.
The Prime Minister's activities also made important contributions to the success of CAEXPO and CABIS 2023, thereby tightening practical cooperation, especially in the fields of economics, trade, and investment between Vietnam and China, between ASEAN and China in general, as well as between Vietnam border localities and Guangxi in particular, for the benefit of the peoples and businesses of both sides.
