An exhibitor (R) introduces products from India at the seventh China-South Asia Expo in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 16, 2023. (Xinhua/Hu Chao)
BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhua) -- China will refine the arrangements for free trade agreement (FTA) with South Asian countries to further unleash the potential for trade and investment cooperation, Li Fei, Vice Minister of Commerce said at a press conference held on Tuesday in Beijing.
China will strengthen development strategy alignment and coordination of economic and trade policies with South Asian countries to build more consensus on cooperation. It will keep improving mechanisms such as unimpeded trade measures and investment cooperation working groups to enhance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, according to Li.
Efforts will be made to promote cooperation with South Asian countries in areas such as digital economy and green economy, enhance connectivity, remove trade and investment barriers and unreasonable restrictions, and create a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory business environment, said Li, adding that China will also propel cooperation with South Asian countries within multilateral frameworks like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS cooperation mechanism.
Chinese enterprises will be encouraged to expand their economic and trade cooperation with South Asian countries and speed up building resilient regional industrial chain and supply chain systems through cooperation models featuring production-supply-marketing connection as well as investment-construction-operation integration, said Wang Liping, director of the department of Asia under the Ministry of Commerce of China.
China and South Asian countries have maintained a good momentum of economic and trade exchanges in recent years. According to Li, the value of trade between China and South Asian countries reached nearly 200 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, twice the amount in 2013.
China remains the largest trading partner of countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. More and more products from South Asian countries, including rice from Pakistan, black tea from Sri Lanka, seafood from the Maldives, and pine nuts from Afghanistan, are entering the Chinese market and become popular with Chinese consumers, said Li.
(Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
