Phnom Penh (FN), Dec. 19 – Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen highly commended China’s relentless support for maintaining ASEAN Centrality and Unity, speaking at the Conferment Ceremony of the Distinguished World Leader Lifetime Achievement Award, held on Monday (Dec 19) at the Peace Palace.
“I also would like to take this opportunity to commend China’s relentless support for maintaining ASEAN Centrality and Unity in the evolving regional architecture and promoting mutual synergy and reinforcement among the mechanisms led by ASEAN,” the premier underlined.
“Maintaining the prestige of ASEAN in all aspects at global stage is inseparable from the engagement of ASEAN dialogue partners, especially the People's Republic of China, which is recognized as the world's second largest economic Superpower. In fact, ASEAN-China cooperation has grown steadily over the past three decades, reflecting through establishment of the “ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” in 2021, and now is moving towards the establishment of an upcoming “China-ASEAN Free Trade Area version 3.0”,” the premier added.
“For instance, China is ASEAN's the largest trading partner, with total merchandise trade between ASEAN and China increased to around USD 669 Billion in 2021, up 28%, while the inflow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from China to ASEAN amounted to USD 13.6 Billion in 2021, which almost doubled the value compared to that in 2020. With these contributions, based on the assessment and forecast of the ASEAN +3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) last October, the ASEAN region will be able to achieve growth rate of 5.3% and 4.9% in 2022 and 2023, respectively, which is a high rate compared to other regions of the world,” said the premier.
Samdech continued, “The development of the People’s Republic of China is a miraculous achievement, which has benefited not only the Chinese people, but also provided numerous positive impacts for ASEAN and Cambodia in terms of economic, social, and geo-political dimensions.”
“In the context which we are constantly confronting more problems and risks with high uncertainty, such as the continuation of the COVID19 pandemic, geo-political competition, protectionism, the uncertainty of the global economic outlook, climate change, the constant disruption of global value chains and production, I hope and believe that the ASEAN-China cooperation that has been opening a new chapter through the implementation of the “ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” and the establishment of the “ASEAN-China Free Trade Area version 3.0”, will contribute to further enhancing relations and cooperations between the two regions with greater potential and dynamism,” Samdech underscored.
=FRESH NEWS
