Trade between China and ASEAN (the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations) rose to $472.16 billion in 2015, with an annual growth rate of 18.5 percent since 1991, a senior official said Tuesday.
Vice Commerce Minister Gao Yan explained at a news conference in Beijing that the two sides are trying their best to "get bilateral trade growth back on track as soon as possible," and that China currently is ASEAN's biggest trading partner, while ASEAN is China's third biggest, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
As of May, two-way investments had exceeded $160 billion, with ASEAN remaining a major destination for Chinese companies.
However, from January to May this year, trade fell 7.1 percent from the previous year to $173.57 billion. Gao attributed this to the sluggish global economy.
"China has always kept a good relationship with ASEAN countries, especially during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98. And trade between the two sides has flourished in the last two decades with a China-ASEAN FTA strengthening China-ASEAN financial cooperation," Zhang Yugui, dean of the School of Economics and Finance at the Shanghai International Studies University, told Global Times.
Zhang added that the bond between two sides has been constantly affected by powers outside the region, since the better the relationship between China and ASEAN is, the harder it is for the U.S. dollar to remain dominant in the region.
However, Zhang said he believes the relationship remains promising, since business connections between two close neighbors cannot easily be cut off by outside powers.
Meantime, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said regular market forces, and not the South China dispute, caused a 57 percent drop in ASEAN investments in China in June.
ASEAN's investments in China have been increasing in recent years, especially in the last year. In the first half of the year, foreign investments in China have shifted to high technology, high quality and high-level sectors, and China has received more investments from Europe and the U.S. during that period, said Shen.
