Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers a speech on safeguarding open regionalism at the ASEAN Secretariat on Monday in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: website of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is expected to boost global trade by nearly 3 percent, with a 1.5 percent global growth effect in five years, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday, in a speech on safeguarding open regionalism at the ASEAN Secretariat.

"The economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN is flourishing," Wang noted, explaining that China and ASEAN are each other's largest trading partners. The bilateral trade has increased by 100 times compared with 30 years ago, and the cumulative direct investment between the two sides has exceeded $310 billion.

As the world's second and fifth largest economies respectively, China and ASEAN account for more than one-fifth of the world's total economic output and contribute more than 30 percent to the global economy, Wang said, "they are truly important engines of global economic recovery."

Wang said China and five Lancang-Mekong countries have agreed to build a more resilient Lancang-Mekong Economic Development Belt, China is discussing with Laos and Thailand the possibility of opening up the China-Laos-Thailand railway, in a bid to connect the new land-sea channel, and China has reached important consensus on all-round cooperation with Indonesia.

In a turbulent global environment, China and ASEAN members are focused on development, which in itself is an important contribution to the world economy, Wang said.

China and ASEAN have carried out fruitful anti-epidemic cooperation, becoming the first regions to control the spread of the epidemic, created necessary conditions for a rapid economic recovery, and injected precious confidence into the world, Wang noted.

"Our region has secured such remarkable achievements and created exceptional miracles in growth, most fundamentally because countries in the region have adhered to open regionalism, respected and appreciated the diversities among members, and upheld and practiced the principle of voluntarism," Wang said.

China and ASEAN are consolidating in-depth cooperation in the digital and green economies, which has led East Asia to become the fastest growing digital economy market in the world, Wang added.

ASEAN was China's largest trading partner over the first five months of this year. Total trade value between China and ASEAN was 2.37 trillion yuan ($352 billion), an increase of 8.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 14.8 percent of China's total foreign trade value, according to Chinese Customs.

Global Times