Southeast Asia economics thread.

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Chinese companies form JV, to explore rare-earth resource in Laos

By Global Times Published: Sep 23, 2022 01:29 PM

Rare earth Photo: VCG

Xiamen Tungsten Corporation (XTC), China's largest producer of Tungsten products, announced that it has signed an agreement to form a joint venture (JV) with rare and precious metal manufacturer Chifengjilong Gold Mining Co (Chifeng Gold), and the JV will focus on rare-earth resource exploration in Laos.

Industry observers said the move represents Chinese companies' fresh diversification effort in sourcing rare-earth minerals - the bulk of which isreliant onimports from countries such as Myanmar - amid supply chain disruption, skyrocketing bulk commodity price and other rising global uncertainties. Participating in the resource exploration of foreign countries will drive up their local rare-earth industrial chains, while ensuring the security of the strategic resources supply and giving a boost to China's competitive industrial advantage in global sphere, analysts said.

The new JV has a registered capital of 60 million yuan ($8.45 million), with XTC accounting for 49 percent of the investment and Chifeng Gold accounting for the remaining 51 percent, according to an announcement XTC sent to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Under the agreement, XTC will be responsible for providing support to rare-earth exploration in Laos and assist the JV's access to domestic policy support, and Chifeng Gold should provide assistance inacquiring an exploration license in Laos and applying for local preferential policies. Rare earth is an indispensable element in the production of high-end technology such as smartphones, computers, military equipment, satellite and aerospace technology.

The set-up of the JV will make full use of the two companies' advantages, and is conducive to optimizing XTC's rare-earth industry plan, strengthening the source of supply of rare earth and improving its core competitiveness, XTC said. The other company Chifeng Gold has acquired several mineral resources in Africa and Laos, according to media reports.

Wu Chenhui, an independent industry analyst, told the Global Times on Friday that Chinese companies' investment into rare-earth resource-rich Laos mirrors a new trend in sourcing minerals and an ongoing diversification push.

"Rather than buying from local companies, Chinese companies with tech know-how and independent operating system now look to directly participate in local exploration, so as to minimize any potential disruptions in purchase, price fluctuation and transportation," Wu said.

Currently, China imports large volumes of rare-earth minerals, and most are from Myanmar. Tapping into Laos' market will also enrich the import sources, making China less vulnerable to risks brought by heavy reliance on a single market, according to Wu.

The Global Times reported earlier that several times of border closure in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, as part of anti-epidemic measures, have strained Myanmar's rare-earth mineral trade with Chinese companies in Ganzhou, East China's Jiangxi Province, one of China's most important rare earth manufacturing bases.

Laos is rich in heavy rare-earth reserves. It is expected Chinese firms' investment and technology transfer will help build a rare-earth upstream industrial chain in Southeast Asian (SEA)countries.

Observers said that considering China's overwhelming edge in middle- and end- supply chain, Chinese companies will still ship back mineral resources to China for further extraction and processing. Also, the opening of the China-Laos Railway could facilitate a rare-earth supply chain in SEA.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden decided against restricting imports of neodymium magnets that come primarily from China, Politico reported, providing a further piece of evidence showing China’s unshaken position in the rare-earth global supply chain. Neodymium magnets are one of the middle-to-end products made with rare earth.

In August, China's rare-earth export volume came to 3,673.6 tons, down by 6.7 percent year-on-year, customs data showed. Export price hit a record high in August, jumping to $26 per kilogram, up 93.8 percent year-on-year

 

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All Roads (and Railways) Leading to China… and the West Ain’t Happy

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China’s ascendant global power is showing up the increasingly bankrupt condition of the United States and its Western allies.

China is succeeding where the British, French and Japanese imperialist powers failed. This year saw the full operation of the China-Laos Railway, the first link in an ambitious Pan-Asian Rail Network that will integrate eight Southeast Asian nations designed to carry freight and millions of passengers.

The city of Kunming in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan is the rail and road hub linking the world’s second-biggest economy to its southern neighbors. The Pan-Asian Rail Network

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Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, converging on the port cities of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore (see map graphic).

Kunming, already connected to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and other Chinese metropolises, is thus providing a gateway for the entire Southeast Asian region to global trading routes. It represents China’s world-spanning Belt and Road Initiative in action.

The China-Laos segment of this transcontinental network was completed in December 2021 – on schedule after five years of construction – with a budget of $6 billion. The other regional segments are still under construction. A network of new motorway “expressways” complement the rail links, the configuration resembling a Chinese fan spreading out.

The Pan-Asian Rail Network is planned for completion by 2030 at a total cost of $112 billion. Some 30,000 kms of tracks will be laid, carrying both high-speed and conventional speed trains. Beijing is financing up to 70 percent of the construction costs, with the remainder capitalized through bilateral loans. The overall design is backed by the inter-governmental trade bloc, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

It is an awesome mega-project that is aimed at boosting economic growth for the region. Inner land areas are to be opened up for agriculture, tourism and transport of goods.

Over a century ago, the British and French colonial powers attempted to build railways in Southeast Asia – and failed. A combination of world wars and financial burden derailed former projects. The Japanese imperialists tried to link Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) with an infamous railroad built by prisoners of war – and failed. Now China is laying down infrastructure based on a wholly different concept of partnership and joint development. All the signs indicate that China is succeeding.

The achievement of the China-Laos rail link alone is impressive. It

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over 1,000 kilometers from Kunming to Vientiane, the Laotian capital. It required the building of hundreds of tunnels and bridges through mountainous territory spanning twice the meandering Mekong River.

President Thongloun Sisoulith of Laos hailed the railway as “opening a new era of development and prosperity” for his landlocked and relatively poor nation of 7 million people. Largely funded by China, the rail link will open up Laos for trade with its giant northern neighbor and beyond. For China, the links to Laos and the other Southeast Asian nations provide additional access to land and sea routes to global markets. It’s a stellar example of the “win-win” philosophy that guides the comprehensive BRI vision espoused by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Belt and Road Initiative was launched by President Xi in 2013. Already nine years old, the BRI has seen 146 nations joining the global partnership which is explicitly based on multipolar co-development. The Pan-Asian Rail Network is an embodiment of that vision.
One would think that such a vision for mutual prosperity and peaceful partnership might be welcomed by all. Not so among the US-led Western powers and allies.

American and allied news media have embarked on a relentless campaign to denigrate and demonize China and its BRI projects.
The Australian Financial Review ran a recent

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with the dubious headline: “Can the West Dismantle China’s Pan-Asian Railway Dream?” The article went on to say: “Fast train plans are a concern for Western nations worried about China’s growing influence in the region.”

The Financial Review doesn’t explain the means or legalities of “dismantling” these projects. Neither does it spell out the justification for “concerns” about China’s growing influence. The tacit assumption is based on a notion of Sinophobia and a self-ordained right by the West to destroy China’s investments and infrastructure projects. The self-appointed West evidently feels entitled to judge and act unilaterally – even criminally – with impunity and without consulting the opinion of countries that have embraced mutual partnerships with China.

The U.S. government-owned Radio Free Asia continually alleges that China is seeking to dominate its regional neighbors through “debt traps”. On the newly opened rail link, the RFA

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: “Giant China, tiny Laos link up with launch of high-speed train”, and went on to assert that Beijing’s financing of the project was a means to dominate through debt.

This “debt-trap” accusation is a recurring insinuation by Western media to undermine China’s bilateral relations. There is an arrogant assumption by Western powers that they know better than Laos and other BRI participating nations. There is also a dubious pretense that the United States and its allies are somehow the sole benefactors of other nations, uniquely looking out for their national well-being. The facts are contrary to such pretensions. It is the Western capitalist states that have historically used financial debt to subjugate and control developing nations for exploitation of their natural resources.

Shouldn’t Western powers perhaps consult with China’s BRI partners about how they actually assess their prospects? In all the reams of negative reporting, Western media rarely if ever report the willing partnering with China of countries like Laos. It’s like their opinions don’t count. The United States and its Western allies simply presume to know better.

Another recurring unsubstantiated allegation made by Western media is that China’s colossal infrastructure plans are causing large-scale ecological damage and displacing local farming communities. Somehow, Radio Free Asia cited precisely that “a total of 4,411” farming families were made landless by the China-Laos railway. The publication did not say how that seemingly exact figure was obtained. It did, however, admit that “most of them have been compensated”.

Typically, no credible evidence is presented by Western media for claims of detrimental impact. This author journeyed on the China-Laos rail link at the end of September and viewed endless, rolling green landscapes, showing minimal ecological disruption beyond the laying of tracks. The same can be said for a new expressway road bridge under construction across the Mekong River between China and Laos. The verdant jungles surrounding the bridge and motorway worksites appeared untouched.

The negative claims by the United States regarding China’s BRI in Southeast Asia and in Laos in particular are bitterly ironic. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. dropped over 260 million bombs on Laos between 1964-73 in a covert operation dubbed Rolling Barrel aimed at defeating the North Vietnamese army and Vietcong guerrilla. That criminal American aggression

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Laos the “most bombed country in history” – exceeding the tonnage of explosives dropped during the Second World War. Over 50,000 Laotian people were killed by the American carpet bombing, which until today has left an odious legacy of deadly cluster bomblets scattered over the mountainous jungles. Indeed a major part of China’s rail construction

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extensive de-mining and clearing of American unexploded ordnance across remote terrain.

Despite Western attempts to smear China’s BRI, it is pushing ahead unabated. Southeast Asia demonstrates eloquently that all roads and railways are leading to China which is set to supplant the United States as the world’s biggest economy. And the West is evidently not happy about that because it threatens U.S.-led hegemony and its ambitions of unipolar dominance.

China’s ascendant global power, based on partnership and mutual development, is showing up the increasingly bankrupt condition of the United States and its Western allies. These has-been capitalist powers are coming off their rails, if not the owners of train-wreck economies.

 

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Huadian project starts ops in Cambodia​

By ZHENG XIN | China Daily | Updated: 2022-11-03 09:13

A power supply project in Cambodia, involving China's largest single investment in the country, started electricity generation on Tuesday after a 72-hour trial run, its operator China Huadian Corp said on Tuesday.

The 700,000 kilowatt Huadian Sihanoukville plant is the first phase of Huadian's largest coal-fired power project in Cambodia. It will effectively alleviate Cambodia's power supply shortages while promoting local socioeconomic development, it said.

Approved in mid-2018, the project is being developed in two phases. The first phase includes two 350 megawatt supercritical coal-fired power units with a total installed capacity of 700 MW. An 8,000-ton coal berth and a 2,000-ton level berth for heavy pieces has been also built. It is so far the only coal-fired power project with the highest environmental protection standards in Cambodia, said the company.

According to Fang Zheng, chairman of China Huadian Overseas Investment Co Ltd, Huadian has to date built a presence in overseas markets like Cambodia, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam and Bangladesh with projects covering coal-fired plants, hydropower and solar power.

Combined installed capacity of the overseas projects under operation has exceeded 4.52 million kW with a total gross value of assets of around 32.4 billion yuan ($4.46 billion) so far, he said.

China has continued with overseas energy development in recent years, spanning from hydro, wind, solar to conventional power generation, said Wei Hanyang, a power market analyst at BloombergNEF.

As China is committed to forging renewable energy cooperation with more countries, Chinese companies will likely find opportunities to build more renewable energy projects on the global stage, he said.

As one of the country's major State-owned power companies, Huadian has also invested in and constructed the Lower Stung Russei Chrum Hydropower Plant. With the highest installed capacity then in Cambodia, the project has produced more than 8.4 billion kW of clean power since its first unit was put into operation in September 2013.

The power generated accounts for more than 30 percent of the total annual power generation in Cambodia, and has helped the Southeast Asian nation secure its power supply alongside steady operation of local power distribution grids, it said.

 

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Leaders' visits to strengthen China-ASEAN cooperation

By GT staff reporters Published: Nov 08, 2022 08:32 PM Updated: Nov 08, 2022 11:32 PM

China ASEAN Photo:VCG

While calling for a stronger China-Cambodia friendship and a closer cooperation with East Asian countries, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday kicked off his official visit to Cambodia and will attend meetings with ASEAN leaders, as analysts said Li's visit, together with more recent frequent China-ASEAN interactions, will help facilitate future cooperation and inject more stability to the region amid increasing global challenges.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Hun Sen of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Premier Li Keqiang will attend the 25th China-ASEAN Summit, the 25th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit and the 17th East Asia Summit to be held in Cambodia from Tuesday to November 13, and pay an official visit to Cambodia, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced.

After arriving in Phnom Penh on Tuesday night, Li said that China and ASEAN have established a comprehensive strategic partnership and become each other's largest trading partner. The current international situation is complicated and undergoing tremendous changes, with all sorts of instabilities, and the global development is facing unprecedented challenges, Li said. He said China hopes the series of leaders' meetings on East Asian cooperation can focus on development and cooperation, insist on upholding multilateralism and free trade, and join hands in coping with challenges, as well as inject new impetus for regional economic integration, and world peace and stability.

Prior to Li's arrival in Cambodia on Tuesday, Cambodian newspapers the Khmer Times and Jian Hua Daily published a signed article by Li, in which Li said that recent years have witnessed continued growth of China-Cambodia relations. The sincere cooperation between China and Cambodia has produced tangible results and "such achievements are taking

This is Premier Li's first visit to Cambodia after the conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Analysts said that along with Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng's trip to Singapore from November 1 to 2 and Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to China October 30 to November 2, China and ASEAN have had more frequent interactions in recent weeks, showcasing their willingness to further promote bilateral relations and developments, especially amid increasing challenges in the post-COVID era. Stable China-ASEAN relations have been a source of stability for the region and the world.

Boosting cooperation

During his stay in Cambodia, Li will meet with His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni, and have talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press conference on Friday.

China and Cambodia have been working to update their cooperation mechanism, especially on improving Cambodia's industrial capacity, agricultural cooperation and infrastructure construction, Ge Hongliang, director of the China-ASEAN Maritime Security Research Center at Guangxi University for Nationalities, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The friendship between China and Cambodia has yielded fruitful achievements in recent years, analysts said. For example, as the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement, signed in October 2020 entered into force, bilateral trade has exceeded $10 billion, various fruits have been brought from Cambodia to the Chinese market and major cooperation projects, including the new international airport in Siem Reap and the expressway from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, are either under way or have been completed.

China and Cambodia are friendly neighbors and ironclad friends. The two countries have supported each other with bilateral relations showing high-level robustness. Moreover, Cambodia has also played an irreplaceable role in promoting relations between ASEAN and China, Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Moreover, as the report to the 20th CPC National Congress has drawn out the Chinese path to modernization and prosperity and noted the importance to investment, consumption and trade, developing closer relations with ASEAN would also help boost bilateral trade and defend regional stability, Chen said.

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in 2020 for the first time, while China has been ASEAN's largest trade partner for 13 consecutive years since 2009. Moreover, two-way investment between China and ASEAN exceeded $340 billion at the end of July, as the two sides grew into the most active partners in terms of bilateral investment, according to data from China's Ministry of Commerce.

The bilateral relations between China and ASEAN are getting closer as the two sides are working to further promote the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), facilitate deeper integration of the industrial supply and value chains, and promote the interconnectivity of infrastructure and the joint construction of a new international land-sea trade corridor, all of which demonstrate China's diplomacy on building a closer community of a shared future, analysts said.

The general trend of China-ASEAN cooperation will not change and China and ASEAN members have the capability and wisdom to deal with small disputes, for example on the South China Sea, Chen said.

As Premier Li will have face-to-face meetings with leaders of ASEAN members, analysts said the discussions will include issues such as how to advance the process of East Asian economic integration and how to speed up the negotiation of the 3.0 version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

Ge said that China and ASEAN will focus on how to further implement the comprehensive strategic partnership which was enhanced in 2021 and promote the high-quality development of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative to connect with the "ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific" and facilitate connectivity between China's Global Development initiative with ASEAN's plans on developments.

Responding to the current international situation, China and ASEAN share a consensus on dealing with challenges to the region and the world, including on energy and food crises. However, their cooperation on politics and security is being threatened by US-led external forces as the US has started geopolitical confrontations with small cliques, such as pulling together the AUKUS alliance to contain China and pushing the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) to shake global supply chains, Ge said.

US President Joe Biden will also travel to Cambodia from November 12 to 13 to participate in the annual US-ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit, the White House said in a statement.

In recent years, the US has ramped up efforts to draw ASEAN countries to its side with more tactics. However, ASEAN countries are becoming more vigilant and have avoided taking sides between China and the US, Chen said.

Faced with the increasing pressure from the US, many ASEAN countries have maintained a balanced strategy between China and the US. For example, many of them choose to join the US-led IPEF and also to participate in the RCEP and use them to facilitate their own development. Moreover, ASEAN members are stressing internal unity to shore up their resilience when faced with outside risks, Ge said.

 

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Stronger China-Cambodia friendship to enhance trade ties, with 5G and AI to foster new drivers for cooperation

5G, AI to foster new drivers for bilateral cooperation: experts

By GT staff reporters Published: Nov 08, 2022 08:49 PM

Longan fruits are on display at the launching ceremony of Cambodian longan export to China, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Oct 27, 2022. Cambodia on Thursday launched longan export to China, marking another fruitful cooperation in the agricultural sector between the two countries. Photo:Xinhua

Trade connections between China and Cambodia in ASEAN will accelerate with improving regional connectivity and lower trade barriers, as the "stronger-than-ever" bilateral friendship will benefit the people of both countries, despite rising uncertainty and instability in the world, experts said.

Apart from traditional cooperation areas such as agriculture and infrastructure, experts noted that 5G, artificial intelligence and smart cities can foster new drivers for trade in the ASEAN region, thanks to accelerated pace of digital economy transition.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen of Cambodia, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will attend the 25th China-ASEAN Summit, the 25th ASEAN Plus Three Summit and the 17th East Asia Summit to be held in Cambodia from Tuesday to Sunday, and pay an official visit to Cambodia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on November 4.

Ahead of his official visit to Cambodia, Li on Monday called for a stronger China-Cambodia friendship and closer East Asia cooperation in a signed article published in Cambodian newspapers Khmer Times and Jian Hua Daily, noting that recent years have witnessed the continued growth of China-Cambodia relations.

"We need to strengthen complementarity between our development strategies, earnestly implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), drive our cooperation on the two wheels of regional trade and free trade, and work together to build an open regional economy," Li said in the article.

Cambodia is a small country in ASEAN but it is the one that has the closest partnership with China, with no unresolved political issues, not to mention that on many regional and international issues, China and Cambodia support each other and have a high degree of consensus, Zhao Gancheng, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Given the circumstances, cooperation between China and Cambodia is smooth, Zhao said, noting that their cooperation should be a model of cooperation between a big country and a small country.

Over the past few years, the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement was signed and came into force, and bilateral trade exceeded $10 billion, two years earlier than expected.

More than 170 companies from around the world have settled in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, jointly developed by China and Cambodia, creating nearly 30,000 jobs for local people.

Moreover, in the infrastructure area, construction of the new international airport in Siem Reap is well underway. The expressway from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, the first of its kind in Cambodia, has been completed.

"I personally don't think there is any rush to sign new projects on the sidelines of Premier Li's visit to Cambodia. Since the post-pandemic era is gradually coming, there would be a focus on reviewing the projects that have been completed," Zhao said.

Zhao predicted that agriculture could be an area of further cooperation since the agricultural country is heavily dependent on China for its farm exports, and it may seek more exchanges in seeds and food safety.

In a fresh move on October 28, Cambodia launched longan exports to China, another instance of cooperation in the agricultural sector. Previously, high-quality rice, Basa fish, bananas and mangoes from Cambodia became readily available on the Chinese market and on the tables of Chinese households.

From 2019 to the end of June 2022, Cambodia exported 2.4 million tons of agricultural products to China, with a total export value of $1.942 billion, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency, citing Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Dith Tina.

In April this year, the agricultural ministries of the two countries held the second meeting of the China-Cambodia Steering Committee on Agricultural Cooperation, which clarified the key direction of agricultural cooperation.

There is also huge potential for both parties in terms of production capacity cooperation - that is, China's labor-intensive industries may invest in Cambodia and produce locally in Cambodia, Zhao said.

A prosperous trade connection between China and Cambodia will contribute to regional connectivity and economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, Wang Jia, an independent observer and a close follower of China-ASEAN relations, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Chen stressed that the two countries can seize the opportunities created by new technologies, and strengthen cooperation in 5G and artificial intelligence.

"China will stand together with Cambodia and other countries in the region, and work together to build a stronger China-Cambodia friendship and closer East Asian cooperation," Premier Li said in the article.

 

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China-Indonesia trade exchanges to get stronger as G20 lays foundation for closer ties

Shared future, RCEP to promote regional recovery

By

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in Bali and

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in Beijing Published: Nov 15, 2022 09:17 PM

This photo taken on Nov. 9, 2022 shows electric multiple units being tested for hot-running on the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway trial section in Bandung, Indonesia. The hot-running test of the catenary system of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR) trial section started on Wednesday, marked by the slow departure of the Chinese-made Electric Multiple Units from the Tegalluar Station in Bandung.(Photo: Xinhua)

Economic connections between China and Indonesia, host of the ongoing G20 Summit, are set to be strengthened, underpinned by a shared vision between the two countries and a new pattern of bilateral relations driven by the "four wheels" - political, economic, cultural and maritime cooperation.

Observers said that closer ties will bring much certainty to the economic development of Asia as a whole, which is in urgent need of a post-pandemic recovery as rising protectionism and geopolitical tensions have cast a shadow on the uncertain global economy.

China has played a positive role in promoting the rise of Indonesia, and through the meeting of the heads of state of China and Indonesia at the G20 Summit in Bali, the road to building a community with a shared future between the two countries will likely go broader, Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China is Indonesia's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade surpassing $100 billion in 2021, up by 58.6 percent year-on-year. China has been a major market for Indonesia's products such as palm oil, coal, steel, bird's nests, coffee and tropical fruits, and is now further buoyed by the RCEP deal.

According to a Reuters report in November, nine Indonesian companies signed contracts to sell 2.5 million tons of palm oil products valued at $2.6 billion to 13 Chinese buyers.

In the fields of nickel, the digital economy, infrastructure and new energy, China has contributed to Indonesia's economic development by introducing advanced technologies, providing financial support and cultivating local talent, the China Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia said in a report on October 29.

A vivid example of win-win bilateral ties is the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway, as Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on October 13 that the construction achievements of the railway would be presented to the world during the G20 Bali Summit, further demonstrating the close partnership between the two governments.

With a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway built with Chinese technology will cut the journey between Jakarta and Bandung, the capital of Indonesia's West Java province, from over three hours to only 40 minutes.

Experts expect its economy to be on the fast track of recovery with the continuous advance of the East Asian economic integration process and implementation of the RCEP deal, noting that cooperation in areas including local currency settlement and e-commerce will bring more opportunities to all countries in the region.

Indonesia's Ministry of Trade has predicted that within five years of RCEP ratification, exports will grow by 8-11 percent, while foreign investment will increase by 22 percent.

"China is happy to see the rise of emerging economies like Indonesia, which gives positive energy for today's international order," Xu said.

Xu noted that since both China and Indonesia are major developing countries and important emerging market economies, they have similar development stages, extensive common interests, and broad prospects for further cooperation.

Tourism is also a huge part of China-Indonesia trade and economic cooperation, and Indonesia is hoping to expand cooperation with China in the recovery of its tourism sector, an Indonesian official said on Tuesday.

"Chinese tourists are very important for Indonesia. Before COVID-19, Chinese tourists stand as No 3 for visiting Indonesia, after Singapore and Malaysia," Rizki Handayani, deputy of tourism products and events of Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Economy, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the G20 Summit on Tuesday.

Handayani said that Indonesia is looking forward to continuing collaboration with China and attracting more Chinese visitors, adding that the G20 will help Indonesia promote tourism.

"China hopes to work with Indonesia to deepen high-level strategic mutual trust, strengthen high-quality cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative and practical cooperation in other fields, and advance our comprehensive strategic partnership for more outcomes, to bring more benefits to the two countries and peoples and contribute more positive energy to regional and world peace and development," Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a regular press conference on November 11.

Experts are also calling for joint efforts by China, Indonesia and other ASEAN members to drive regional development to a new high as divisions are widening in some other parts of the world.

Xu Ningning, executive president of the China-ASEAN Business Council, said that RCEP members should strengthen connectivity and make action plans for the regional digital economy, green development and cooperation among smaller firms to jointly deal with external challenges such as international financial instability and disrupted industrial supply chains.

"The cooperation prospects between China and ASEAN are promising, facilitated by the high-quality joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative," he told the Global Times, noting that ASEAN has great demand for China's products including raw materials and daily necessities.

 

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China-Thailand trade bond 'promising' as RCEP, high-speed railway extend cooperation areas

By GT staff reporters Published: Nov 17, 2022 09:06 PM

Photo: Yang Ruoyu/GT

The trade bond between China and Thailand is expected to get even closer after the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the nation, observers said, noting that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade deal and a high-speed rail line connecting the two countries, will further accelerate bilateral cooperation.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha of the Kingdom of Thailand, Xi arrived in Bangkok on Thursday to attend the 29th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and President Xi will pay an official visit to Thailand through Saturday.

"The visit is a milestone in guiding and advancing bilateral relations," Chinese Ambassador to Thailand Han Zhiqiang was cited as saying in a report by the Xinhua News Agency on Thursday.

China and Thailand have a history of thousands of years of friendly exchanges, and the saying "China-Thailand a family" is deeply rooted in the hearts of many people. The two countries joined hands to deal with the pandemic and jointly promoted an economic recovery, Zhao Gancheng, a South Asia expert at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday.

This year also marks the 47th anniversary of China-Thailand diplomatic ties and the 10th anniversary of the China-Thailand comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

"As China's trade with Thailand, which is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has displayed growing momentum after the implementation of the RCEP deal, how to take the already close trade bond to a higher level could be a focus of the talks," Zhao said.

China has been Thailand's largest trading partner for nine consecutive years and a major export market for Thailand's agricultural products. Bilateral trade surged 33 percent year-on-year to reach $131.18 billion in 2021, according to data from Chinese customs.

Regarding connectivity and infrastructure construction, the China-Thailand railway, an important part of the trans-Asia rail network, will be Thailand's first high-speed railway.

The line will run from Bangkok to the border town of Nong Khai, where a bridge will connect it with the China-Laos Railway, making it possible to travel by train from Bangkok through Laos and then to Kunming in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

"The railway will inject vitality into the economic development of regions along the line in Thailand, while push the linking-up of the pan-Asia railway network and promote regional connectivity," Zhao noted.

Investment and agricultural trade are the areas where the two countries have been enhancing connections in recent years.

"The Chinese market is a large and important one for Thai rice. We anticipate that Chinese people will appreciate and accept Thai rice more than ever, especially jasmine rice (Thai Hommali rice), white rice and healthy rice, and we hope that China can buy more rice from us," the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

In the first nine months of this year, Thailand exported 455,318 tons of rice to China, up 30.5 percent year-on-year, worth $219.5 million, up 20 percent year-on-year. Those shipments accounted for 8 percent of Thailand's total rice export.

In July, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invited China to scale up its investment in Thailand, saying the country's East Economic Corridor is ready for investment by Chinese companies in sectors such as electric cars and agro-industries.

Ambassador Han said that bilateral cooperation in the digital economy, green economy and new energy is now flourishing, noting that China's 5G technology, e-commerce, electric vehicles and photovoltaic products have boosted Thailand's "new economy" and are becoming major growth drivers of mutually beneficial cooperation.

China supports Thailand's important role as the host, and President Xi will put forward China's solutions and ideas on the development of APEC, the improvement of global governance and economic recovery, said the ambassador.

"In the next step, China will work with ASEAN to implement the RCEP agreement with high quality, seize the opportunities of the digital economy and green economy, promote the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, and build new international land-sea trade channels with more ASEAN members to facilitate the entry of more high-quality products from ASEAN members to the large Chinese market," Shu Jueting, spokesperson of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, told a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

 

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China-Laos-Thailand high-speed railway to become backbone infrastructure in enhancing regional connectivity: Thai researcher

By Global Times Published: Nov 21, 2022 02:24 AM

China Thailand Photo:VCG


China-Laos-Thailand high-speed railway is expected to play an important role in enhancing regional connectivity, further slashing transportation time and cost from the current level, a senior Thai researcher stated.

Although the project is still under construction, once completed it will become part of the backbone infrastructure for international trade between the two countries, especially for perishable goods such as agricultural produce and high value added items for which time saving and affordable transportation are critical factors to enhance trade and deepen supply chain integration, Nattaporn Triratanasirikul, deputy managing director of Bangkok-based Kasikorn Research Center (KResearch), told the Global Times over the weekend.

China and Thailand on Saturday agreed to build a more stable, prosperous and sustainable China-Thailand community with a shared future, which observers see as a crucial breakthrough that will further enhance already sound bilateral relations to a new, strategic height.

The China-Laos high-speed railway, opened to service in December 2021, has already benefited Thailand, according to Triratanasirikul. The railway has opened a new transportation route that will help cut land transportation costs by approximately 30 percent and save transportation time by roughly 50 percent, as estimated by KResearch.

Total trade volume between Thailand and China via this route has reached 11 billion Thai baht ($307 million) or accounting for 5.3 percent of total cross-border trade between Thailand and China, data from KResearch showed.

Chinese products worth 9.4 billion Thai baht, including fertilizers, automobiles and medical equipment entered the Thai market while Thai exports worth 1.5 billion Thai baht including fruits and, to a lesser extent, computer and electronic products reached China.

Chinese authorities have granted“green lanes” and transportation routes to facilitate export of agricultural products and other perishable goods from Thailand to China via the China-Laos high-speed railway, noted Triratanasirikul.

“We expect that when the China-Laos-Thailand high-speed railway will be completed, it will cut transportation costs further and save transportation time by more than 70 percent,” Triratanasirikul said.

The enhanced connectivity resulting from the high-speed railway will be realized against the backdrop of deeper economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Reflecting the enhanced economic cooperation between Thailand and China, Chinese direct investment in Thailand increased from $720 million in 2020 to $1.14 billion in 2021.

According to data from Chinese customs, bilateral trade surged 33 percent year-on-year, reaching $131.18 billion in 2021.

Chinese electric car makers such as SAIC, Great Wall and BYD have decided to invest to build electric vehicle factories in Thailand and choose Thailand as their production hub in Southeast Asia.

“As the global economy is facing multiple challenges such as tightening monetary policies, elevated inflation and increasing geopolitical tensions, we believe that enhancing economic cooperation between China and Thailand, as well as among ASEAN members through strengthening trade and investment collaboration, while also supporting the establishment of Chinese supply chain in ASEAN should foster regional economic growth,” Triratanasirikul stated. “It will perhaps serve as a cushion to any adverse impact from such challenges that we are facing, and probably the ones in the future.”

 

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First South Asian Under-River Tunnel Will Significantly Assist Regional Trade & Bangladesh’s Export Manufacturing Capabilities ​

The Chinese built and BRI funded Karnaphuli Tunnel has opened and is the first under-river road tunnel in South Asia. It is expected to improve the Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway network and improve traffic for a catchment area of about 34 million people.

Dhaka is the Bangladeshi capital, and Chittagong its second largest city, and the largest seaport in Bay of Bengal. The tunnel runs under the Karnaphuli river, extending for 9.39 kilometres, with the tunnel making up 3.32 kilometres of the total length. The cost of the project is estimated at US$1.1 billion, of which around 50% was financed by the Exim Bank of China.

It was constructed by the China Communications Construction Company, while Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the construction site in October 2017.

In light of all of the existing investment banking existing research, we decided that our AIR research would need to be different – value add. As such this document focusses specifically on 2021 actual investments and/or pledges, across asset classes, as well as major infrastructure projects which came on stream during 2021 or are coming on stream in 2022/23. This included the Karnaphuli Tunnel and numerous other Bangladeshi projects.

While all of these point to continued future growth, we have closed the report with the challenges Bangladesh continues to face in its development from a low income to a middle-income economy. It is only natural that bumps will be encountered along the way, and it is for this reason that while we are optimistic about Bangladesh’s potential, experienced advisory and research should also be undertaken to assess market conditions and operational risks.

Global supply chains are shifting and especially between Asia and Europe. We therefore anticipate Bangladesh being a significant component of the emerging Eurasian supply chains – with the Karnaphuli Tunnel being an immediate example of this.

The Bangladesh issue of Asia Investment Research, titled ‘Bangladesh Trade, Development and Economic Prospects In The Emerging Asian-European Supply Chain” can be downloaded

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China completes delivery of trains for Indonesia's high-speed railway​

Xinhua | Updated: 2023-05-08 10:03

This photo taken on Aug 18, 2022 shows a high-speed electric passenger train, customized for the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, being loaded on a vessel in Qingdao Port of East China's Shandong province. [Photo/Xinhua]

GUANGZHOU -- The delivery of all trains for Indonesia's Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has been completed with the loading of the last three sets of bullet trains at Qingdao Port in east China for shipment to Indonesia, according to the Chinese shipping operator.

The COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers Co Ltd, headquartered in Guangzhou, said on Saturday that the high-speed electric multiple units (EMUs) include 11 trains and one train for comprehensive railway testing. The company developed a customized solution for the delivery of the trains, which were shipped in batches beginning in August 2022.

The high-speed railway line is a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), connecting Indonesia's capital Jakarta and another major city Bandung. With a design speed of 350 km per hour, the railway will cut the journey between Jakarta and Bandung from over three hours to around 40 minutes.