After seeing incomes ballooning since her first trip to the
China-ASEAN Expo two years ago, Vietnamese sericulturist Tran Thi
Min Ngoc came to the exposition again this year to seek the latest
information which could make her business grow even bigger.
Encouraged by her Chinese husband, Ngoc started the silkworm
business four years ago in Vietnam and made her incomes doubled in
just one year.
However, when she found that her incomes was only half of those
earned by Chinese sericulturists at the 2004 China-ASEAN Expo, Ngoc
realized that she was in urgent need of advanced skills.
Ngoc invited Chinese experts to her hometown in Vietnam to help
with the mulberry planting. In the following year, her income grew
fourfold. She said she had benefited a lot from the agricultural
cooperation between China and Vietnam.
Ngoc's example was the epitome of the various technical
cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).
Gu Xiaosong, an expert on Southeast Asian affairs with the
Academy of Social Science of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
described the effect of the China-ASEAN cooperation as "many a
little making a mickle."
"The China-ASEAN cooperation in such fields as agriculture and
telecommunications is no longer merely government policies. It has
been concretized and turned into a close business-to-business and
people-to-people connection," he said. "The bit-by-bit accumulation
is bound to result in a qualitative change to bilateral economic
ties."
The change has drawn attention of high-ranking officials from
both sides.
Gao Hucheng, China's vice minister of commerce, said as the
China-ASEAN negotiation on service trade and investment was moving
forward smoothly, the establishment of the China-ASEAN free trade
zone had entered a substantial period.
Fields selected as the top 10 priorities for future cooperation
of mutual benefit includes agriculture, telecommunications, human
resources, mutual investment, the exploration of the Mekong River,
transport, energy, culture, tourism and public health, Gao
said.
As a matter of fact, Chinese and ASEAN enterprises have been
engaged in the cooperation for years. By the end of 2005, the ASEAN
members' investment in China had amounted to 38.5 billion U.S.
dollars, while nearly 1,000 Chinese enterprises had invested in the
10-member bloc, ranging from the processing industry to
construction, hotel, mining and transportation.
At the 2006 China-ASEAN Expo scheduled for Tuesday, Chinese
exhibitors are ready to present their Southeast Asian customers
more than 30 advanced agricultural technologies. Meanwhile,
industrial zones in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are making
great efforts to attract investments from the ASEAN countries.
By last Wednesday, China and ASEAN members had expressed the
intention to sign agreements on 80 cooperation projects at the
upcoming Expo, a 95 percent growth over those reached at the 2005
Expo.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)