More cooperation is needed between China and ASEAN countries for
logistics development, so as to keep apace with their booming
bilateral trade, said experts Thursday.
"Underdevelopment of infrastructure has made logistics a
bottleneck to China-ASEAN economic development," said Chen Gongyu,
vice chairman of the China Society of Logistics.
At the China-ASEAN summit on Monday, a joint statement was inked
by leaders from China and the ten ASEAN countries to reaffirm their
determination to build a giant Free Trade Area (FTA) by 2010. While
the FTA that will incorporate 1.8 billion, or one third of the
world's population, is taking shape, Chen believes that more work
needs to be done to perfect the logistics network in the
region.
He suggested that three more arterial railways would be helpful:
an east line by the Beibu Gulf winding from Nanning in south China
's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region via Dongxing of the region,
Vietnam's capital Hanoi and Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh to
Bangkok of Thailand ; a central line, which is also expected to be
a tourism line, linking Nanning with Hanoi, Vientiane of Laos,
Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia and Singapore; a west line running from
southwest China's Sichuan province by way of Cao Bang of Vietnam
and ending in Hanoi.
In addition, he noted that waterway, with lower cost, could play
a more important role in China-ASEAN economic cooperation.
"Consignment of over 30 percent of freight in Laos and Vietnam was
realized via waterway," he said.
Meanwhile, although China's logistics market is expanding at an
average rate of 20 percent year-on-year, its cost is still high
compared with developed countries, said Ding Junfa, vice chairman
of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
Total logistics cost in China accounts for 18.6 percent of the
nation's GDP, almost doubling the figures in the United States and
Japan.
"Deepening the China-ASEAN collaboration in logistics and
improving logistics industry is important in boosting an all-round
China-ASEAN economic cooperation," said Liu Zhanfang, vice chairman
of the China International Freight Forwarders Association.
Currently, China and ASEAN are each other's fourth-largest
trading partner, and China-ASEAN trade volume is surging at an
average of 22 percent on year-on-year basis. It is released by the
State Ministry of Commerce that China-ASEAN trade volume in last
year has hit US$130.3 billion, and in the first three quarters this
year, bilateral trade volume between China and ASEAN countries has
topped US$116.3 billion.
(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2006)