Phnom Penh: Prime Minister Hun Sen said that in the past three decades, ASEAN-China cooperation has grown steadily, with ASEAN-China trade reaching $669 billion US dollars in 2021, an increase of 28 percent.
The Cambodian Prime Minister said that ASEAN-China cooperation has progressed through the establishment of the "ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" in 2021 and is also moving towards the establishment of a "ASEAN-China Free Trade Area's 3.0 version" in the coming days.
According to the forecast released by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office in October 2022, the ASEAN region is expected to achieve economic growth of 5.3 percent in 2022 and 4.9 percent and 2023, respectively.
Prime Minister Hun Sen hopes that the ASEAN-China cooperation, which has opened a new page through the implementation of the "ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" and the establishment of the "ASEAN-China Free Trade Area's 3.0 version," will contribute to strengthening the relationship and cooperation between the two regions to greater potentials.
To achieve this goal, Prime Minister Hun Sen urged ASEAN and China to work together to further strengthen regional cooperation through transparency, complementarity, environmental friendliness, and mutual benefit.
At the same time, he urged ASEAN and China to focus on deepening cooperation in all fields, especially in accelerating socio-economic integration, removing trade barriers, strengthening the resilience of local supply and production chains, and seizing new opportunities from the digital economy, as well as green growth and the energy transition.
The Prime Minister also urged ASEAN-China to increase the capacity of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which is considered crucial to economic growth of the New Normal, especially adhering to the multilateral approach to address all problems.
"We need to continue and increase our efforts to promote other regional initiatives and collaborations to maximize the development potential of the two regions," he said.
