Upon the invitation of Tai’an municipal government, Secretary-General Ma Mingqiang of ASEAN-China (ACC) headed a delegation of ASEAN commercial counsellors to visit Tai’an Shandong from 30 August to 2 September 2014. The delegation attended 2014 China (Mount Tai) International Mining Equipment & Technology Exhibition (CIMETE) and held a business meeting with Chinese entrepreneurs. Commercial counsellors from 7 ASEAN Embassies in Beijing at the Fair were Mr. Aung Kyaw Than, commercial counselor of Myanmar Embassy, Mr. Noun Chivorn, Minister Counsellor of Cambodia Embassy, Mr. Sathiane Phouthabandid, Minister Counsellor of Lao Embassy, Mr. Ong Chongyi, Minister Counselor of Malaysian Embassy, Ms. Christine R. Cruz, commercial Counsellor of the Philippines Embassy, Mr. Thalerngsak Vongsamsorn, Minister Counsellor of Thailand Embassy, and Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan, Economic Counsellor of Vietnamese Embassy.
The 2nd CIMETE was hosted by China National Coal Industry Association and co-organized by Shandong Bureau of Science and Technology, Shandong Bureau of Coal Industry, Shandong CCPIT and Tai’an municipal government. Themed by Tech-innovation Leads the Future, the Fair focused on presenting the latest achievements on hi-tech, eco-friendly, energy-saving and recycling economy and their appliance in mining equipment manufacture and management. Having visitors and participants from all over the world, the Fair also established a platform to provide intellectual support for enterprises to achieve their sustainable development in the current economic situation and with the combination of officials, industries and universities.
During the business meeting with Shandong entrepreneurs, Secretary-General Ma said that ASEAN Member States gained momentum in both economic growth and social development, as it enjoyed 5 percent GDP annual growth on average. By 2015, ASEAN will be integrated as one single market with an accomplishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), that is, ASEAN turns itself from a relatively loose FTA zone into an integrated regional economy and a freer integrated market, in which cargo, service, investment and technology will be transfered freely. There are well-designed cooperative machanisms and organisations to ensure cooperation in various areas. At the meantime, frequent people-to-people exchanges provide a vast space for bilateral cooperation. In 2013, Chinese Primier Li Keqiang initiated ASEAN-China Diamond Decade and set new goals for economic cooperation, that is, the total trade volume to be hit 1 trillion USD and the newly increased two-way investment upto 150 billion USD by 2020. As the only inter-governmental organisation between ASEAN and China, ACC, co-founded by the 11 governments, is willing to serve as a bridge between ASEAN and China, in particular on competitive industries and trade facilitation. ACC is also willing to serve ASEAN-China SMEs and acts as a reliable and efficient platform of information and activities, for instance, by organising business trips to ASEAN Member States for credible Chinese investors.
Ms. Bai Xuemei, Vice Mayor of Tai’an municipal government, echoed Secretary-General Ma’s speech by emphasising the fact that Shandong enjoyed a close economic cooperation with ASEAN and ASEAN was the second largest trade partner of Shandong with a total trade volume of 30.9 billion USD in 2013. She further pointed out in her speech that Tai’an is an important manufacture base of mining machinery in China and its electric products are quite competitive in the global market, especially very popular with ASEAN clients. Driven by a strong market demand in ASEAN and an expansion of their business, more and more Tai’an entrepreneurs are interested to invest in ASEAN Member States. Tai’an municipal government extended special thanks to ACC for organising the delegation of ASEAN commercial counsellor to the 2nd CIMETE, and expressed their willingness to cooperate with ACC to assistant Shandong entrepreneurs to get access to ASEAN. Tai’an is very much willing to be a part of ACC’s efforts to promote trade and investment between ASEAN and Shandong.
ASEAN commercial counsellors briefed Shandong entrepreneurs on the latest development of CAFTA upgrading process and achievements, and introduced investment incentive policies of each ASEAN Member State respectively. During the Q&A session, Shandong CEOs of mining, textile and machinery industries actively joined the face-to-face discussion, and made full use of the opportunity to communicate with the commercial counsellors directly. Commercial counsellors answered the questions that the entrepreneurs concerned most and received plenty of invitations to visit their factories.
In addition, in order to promote ASEAN-China two-way investment and assist credible enterprises of Shandong province to get access to ASEAN, commercial counsellors also paid a field visit to local enterprises. Accompanied by Deputy Director-General of Tai’an Bureau of Commerce Mr. Liu Yong, the delegation visited Tai’an Taikai Group, Shandong MengNiu Milk Group and Shandong Weixing CNC, and held talks with those managers on topics, such as seeking potential business opportunities in ASEAN and further strenthening the current cooperation with ASEAN business partners.
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