by Han Lu

Global trade is undergoing a fundamental realignment, with regional cooperation emerging as a critical strategy for nations to navigate uncertainty and foster shared prosperity. Against this backdrop, China's collaboration with South and Southeast Asian countries has gained remarkable momentum. Platforms like the China-South Asia Expo (CSA Expo) are actively facilitating regional supply chain integration and market connectivity.

In interviews with China Economic Net, Zhou Mi,Researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, highlighted Asia's unique advantages: a combined consumer base of 2.8 billion people - representing unprecedented market potential - coupled with institutional frameworks like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). These elements, analysts note, create exceptional conditions for building a more tightly-knit regional economic community.

“Collaboration in these regions will provide a very strong package for development in the coming years. If you look back at North America, like for example in 1994, they set up the free trade agreement called NAFTA. NAFTA was created because there were different development stages between the United States, Canada and Mexico. So collaboration between different development stage levels will improve vertical collaboration along the supply chain. I think that China, Southeast Asia and South Asia - we have such large populations and so many possibilities. Originally we started negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in 2012, but we started these negotiations based on ASEAN, China, the East Asia countries and also included India.

So we hope we can do more in this mechanism to guarantee that collaboration will be based on our commitments. These commitments will improve people's expectations about the collaboration, and I believe this will set up another very important platform for the development of collaboration in the world.”