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On Aug. 8, as we celebrated the 56th ASEAN Day, the ASEAN Online Sale Day opened. This is the first regional online shopping event held by the bloc, and it provided a platform for ASEAN enterprises, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), to promote their products through e-commerce channels.
A wide range of electronics, handicrafts and fashion products from ASEAN countries were on display, highlighting the vibrancy of ASEAN businesses and conveying the message that ASEAN is committed to developing cross-border e-commerce.
Online shopping, including international online shopping, has long been an integral part of daily life in China. Many ASEAN products, such as coffee and shrimp chips from Indonesia and durian from Thailand, are hot sellers on China's e-commerce platforms.
This year, the “Brand and Quality Online Shopping Festival” held by China has created the “ASEAN offerings” activity, which promotes ASEAN’s specialty products on the Chinese market through special online events and live streaming.
The digital economy has changed the way people live and represents the future of the global economy. For developing countries, the digital economy is an opportunity to enliven the consumer market, create new growth points, empower industrial transformation and upgrading, give rise to new business models and promote high-quality development.
China and ASEAN are both highlands of digital economy development. China is a leader in the digital economy, at the forefront of digital infrastructure, smart cities and digital government resources, as well as several world-class digital enterprises.
In 2022, China's digital economy reached 50.2 trillion yuan (US$6.9 trillion), ranking second globally, and the country's online retail sales amounted to 13.79 trillion yuan, ranking first in the world.
ASEAN's digital economy has seen rapid developing in recent years, showing great potential, with the accelerated rollout of digital platforms and digital technologies in many countries, and booming development of industries such as e-commerce, transportation applications and online services. By the end of June 2022, half of the world's 10 fastest-growing countries in terms of online retail sales, including the top three, were ASEAN members. ASEAN is expected to be among the world's top five digital economies by 2025.
China and ASEAN are natural partners in digital economy development. The ASEAN market has already attracted some leading Chinese digital enterprises, including e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba, Tencent and Jingdong, mobile payment enterprises such as Ant Group, digital information enterprises such as Huawei and ZTE and some courier and logistics enterprises.
These Chinese enterprises have cooperated with partners in ASEAN countries to promote advanced technologies and mature business models within ASEAN, and they have assisted Southeast Asia in building digital economic ecosystems that promote the rapid rise of local digital enterprises such as Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia, which has greatly driven the development of ASEAN's digital industry and the construction of its digital interconnectivity.
Because of geographic proximity, people-to-people affinity, integrated economies and highly complementary industries, China and ASEAN members are highly compatible in terms of digital economy development planning and industrial needs. The digital economy will be a new “blue ocean” in China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, creating many opportunities.
At the ASEAN-China Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations in 2022, China and ASEAN established a comprehensive strategic partnership, and Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that China would expand cooperation in the digital economy with ASEAN.
Since then, the two sides have been accelerating digital cooperation, gradually improving strategic alignment and speeding up the implementation of the Initiative on Building ASEAN-China Partnership on Digital Economy. More than half of ASEAN member states have signed bilateral e-commerce cooperation memorandums with China and established the "Silk Road E-commerce" cooperation mechanism.
New chapters on the digital economy that are included in the ongoing negotiations on the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and an initiative on deepening e-commerce cooperation will be published at the upcoming China-ASEAN Leaders’ Summit. In addition, China and the Southeast Asian bloc have utilized platforms such as the China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Information Port to vigorously promote cooperation on projects in the fields of digital government, digital enterprises, digital industries and new communications.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi’s proposal to build a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future through the Belt and Road Initiative. China will use this as an opportunity to plan for cooperation in areas such as the digital economy with ASEAN and other countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.
This year, Indonesia, as ASEAN's rotating chair, has adopted the theme "ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth" and chosen digital economy cooperation as one of the priority agendas. At this historic juncture linking past achievements with prospects, China and ASEAN should work together to embrace and promote the new era of the digital economy.
We need to further strengthen the synergy of digital development strategies, enhance digital connectivity and build an integrated China-ASEAN digital market. We need to promote an exchange of experience and capacity-building training and improve rulemaking by agreeing on high-level digital rules.
We should push for lower tariffs, more efficient customs clearance, more connected payment methods and faster logistics and transportation so that more ordinary people and enterprises can enjoy the benefits of digital economy development.
Next month, Jakarta will host the bloc’s leaders’ meetings on East Asia cooperation. We are ready to work with ASEAN countries at the meetings to promote fruitful results and push China-ASEAN digital economy cooperation to a new level.
Hou Yanqi, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN (The Jakarta Post)
