There is great room for cooperation between China and ASEAN in e-commerce

BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A press conference was held in Beijing on April 9 to launch a "Blue Book on China's Neighborhood Relations: A Report on the Development of China's Neighborhood Relations (2021)" by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Social Sciences Academic Press. The Blue Book Outlines the three development stages of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and believes that there is still a lot of room for improvement in China-ASEAN cooperation in e-commerce.

According to the Blue Book, the period from 2002 to 2009 is the phase of supplementing and improving the agreement under the framework agreement between China and ASEAN, the period from 2010 to 2015 is the phase of the completion and upgrading of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and the period from 2016 to 2019 is the phase of the comprehensive upgrading and implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

In order to ensure the steady and long-term development of China-ASEAN economic and trade relations, the Blue Book suggests that the two sides should strengthen communication in a wider range of areas, build consensus and enhance mutual trust. China and ASEAN have built consensus and fully recognized that China and ASEAN are a community with a shared future. Only through cooperation can we win. For example, during the outbreak of COVID-19, the leaders of China and ASEAN intensively carried out "cloud diplomacy" to enhance communication and convey confidence and support in a timely manner. Non-government cooperation in medicine, health care and other fields has set a good example of regional cooperation in fighting the epidemic, injecting strong impetus into the building of a closer community with a shared future between China and ASEAN, and deepening the belief that only through cooperation can we win. In addition, strengthening "people-to-people communication" is also a major way to remove misgivings and enhance mutual trust. For example, China and ASEAN can strengthen the exchanges between the youth of China and ASEAN through the establishment of "Youth Exchange Year" and other ways. After all, the youth will be the main force of future bilateral exchanges.

At the same time, we will build a three-dimensional free trade network between China and ASEAN. China and ASEAN should strengthen cooperation at the multilateral and regional levels, jointly oppose "trade protectionism" and safeguard the multilateral trading system. Under the condition that the development of the global multilateral trade system is blocked, China and ASEAN should strengthen regional and bilateral cooperation, and jointly build a three-dimensional network of free trade areas with China-ASEAN free trade area as the core, "One Belt And One Road" construction and RCEP as the two wings, and trade and investment liberalization as the ultimate goal. Although regional and bilateral free trade and investment agreements are "exclusive" to a certain extent, they also make it possible for third countries to avoid the risk of exclusion through mutual direct investment.

The blue book also suggested speeding up the construction of rules for the digital economy to safeguard the development of e-commerce. With the wide application of the digital economy in various fields, there is huge potential for cooperation between China and ASEAN in the field of digital economy. The two sides can conduct extensive and in-depth cooperation in the application of 5G network, such as telemedicine, distance education, smart security, smart life and smart cities. In the field of e-commerce, we can strengthen cooperation in creating new forms of e-commerce services, building electronic payment platforms, and building e-commerce big data platforms. In order to further promote the digital economy cooperation between China and ASEAN countries, digital economy development rules should be formed on the basis of mutual respect. For example, the two sides can coordinate their positions on information collection, collation and use, protection of personal privacy and other aspects, reach consensus, and strive to be the first to sign a legally binding agreement text, so as to escort the development of digital economy and e-commerce with institutional constraints. Only in this way can a solid foundation be laid for in-depth digital economy cooperation among States Parties. At the same time, in the development of e-commerce, we should also focus on developing the third-party payment system between China and ASEAN to improve the payment security.