On 12 August 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei Darussalam held the Trade Dialogue on “ASEAN Beyond 50: Benefits, Opportunities and Challenges” in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN. More than 100 representatives of relevant ministries of Brunei, foreign missions in Brunei, business community and business associations attended the event. The participants had a warm discussion on ASEAN Economic Community building as well as economic cooperation between ASEAN and its dialogue partners. Hjh Nor Ashikin Hj Johari, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade delivered a welcoming speech saying that the purpose of the dialogue is to comprehensively review the achievements of ASEAN and give suggestions to its future development.

H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) attended the event upon invitation. She briefed on ASEAN-China relations as well as ACC’s work and said since ASEAN and China established the dialogue relations in 1991, the political mutual trust has been deepened, practical cooperation has achieved fruitful results and the people-to-people exchanges have become even closer. ASEAN-China relations have become the most robust and dynamic among the relations between ASEAN and its dialogue partners. Economic cooperation has been a highlight of ASEAN-China cooperation. In 2016, the two-way trade volume reached 452.2 billion USD. By the end of May 2017, the accumulated mutual investment had reached 183 billion USD. Currently both sides are jointly building the Belt and Road. Projects such as the Jakarta-Bandung railway and China-Laos railway, and Brunei-Guangxi Economic Corridor are progressing smoothly which have injected strong impetus to ASEAN-China cooperation. She further said that Brunei is an important member of ASEAN which has its unique advantages in conducting economic cooperation. ACC would like to work with friends from all ASEAN countries including Brunei, take the 50th anniversary of ASEAN and ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation as an important opportunity to jointly push the level of ASEAN-China practical cooperation to a new high.

Secretary-General Yang Xiuping raised four suggestions to further deepen ASEAN-China economic cooperation: 1) further synergize the development strategies of ASEAN and China, especially aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with the ASEAN Community Vision 2025; 2) make full use of the sub-regional cooperation mechanisms such as BIMP-EAGA and Lancang-Mekong Cooperation; 3) unlock local potentials for cooperation; and 4) promote people-to-people exchanges to lay a solid foundation for cooperation.

Secretary-General Yang Xiuping also exchanged views with the participants on matters related to the prospects of ASEAN-China economic cooperation and jointly building the Belt and Road in a warm atmosphere.