The Guangdong Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the People's Government of Jiangmen City recently jointly held the founding conference of the Guangdong Business Alliance, a member of RCEP, in Jiangmen. The conference will be held in a combination of online and offline formats, with a domestic venue in Jiangmen and overseas venues in the other 14 RCEP member countries, including 5 interactive venues in New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Fang Lixu, Secretary and President of the Party Group of the Guangdong Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Chen Anming, Secretary of the Jiangmen Municipal Party Committee, Secretary and Director of the Party Group of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, Wen Zhencai, Deputy Secretary and Deputy Director of the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, and Jue Suodeng, Consul General of the Consulate General of Myanmar in Nanning, attended the event and delivered speeches. More than 700 representatives from the Consulates General of Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and other countries in Guangdong, foreign chambers of commerce (associations) in Guangdong and RCEP member countries' chambers of commerce, representatives from Guangdong's overseas economic and trade representative offices, as well as representatives from relevant government departments, business associations and key enterprises in Jiangmen city participated in this event.
In his speech at the conference, Fang Lixu stated that the purpose of establishing the Guangdong Business Alliance, a member of RCEP, is to further implement RCEP with high quality, help enterprises make good use of dividends, shape advantages, leverage the trade creation effect and investment increase effect of the agreement, achieve high-level "going out" and "bringing in", and assist enterprises to develop and layout the RCEP regional market based in Guangdong. Jiangmen is a famous "Overseas Chinese Capital" and an important node city in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, connecting the east and opening up the west. It has obvious advantages in being the first to connect with RCEP and leading the expansion of high-level opening up in the Pearl River Delta region. We hope to leverage the synergistic effect between the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Jiangmen Municipal Government, strengthen Guangdong business services, jointly carry out investment attraction in key areas of the industrial chain, promote trade and investment cooperation between Guangdong and RCEP member countries, and provide support for Guangdong Province to strengthen its strategic pivot in the new development pattern.
Chen Anming stated that Jiangmen fully leverages the strategic resource advantages of overseas Chinese, vigorously implements the "Hong Kong Macau Integration" and "Empowering Overseas Chinese Cities" projects, and insists on promoting the high-quality implementation of RCEP as an important work deployment. Looking ahead to the future, Jiangmen will embrace RCEP with a more proactive attitude under the guidance and support of the Ministry of Commerce, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the China ASEAN Business Council, and the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, and strive to build a high-quality international first-class large-scale industrial cluster, trade cluster, and logistics base for RCEP member countries, striving to become a demonstration zone for RCEP Guangdong economic and trade cooperation.
Jue Suodeng stated that China has always been an important economic and trade partner of Myanmar. RCEP provides favorable conditions for trade and investment exchanges and cooperation among member countries. We hope to take advantage of the establishment of the Guangdong Business Alliance among RCEP member countries to promote greater achievements in regional cooperation and jointly enjoy the benefits brought by RCEP.
This year marks the first year of RCEP coming into effect. In the first half of the year, Guangdong's import and export volume to RCEP member countries exceeded 1.1 trillion yuan, accounting for about 30% of the province's total foreign trade, demonstrating the role of RCEP as an engine for economic growth. The ASEAN countries within RCEP have gradually become gathering places for Guangdong enterprises to "go global".
The reporter learned that previously, in order to prepare for the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce Alliance of RCEP member countries, the Guangdong Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade held a work exchange meeting between RCEP member country representative offices and Guangdong Chamber of Commerce through video conference. The chief representatives stationed in RCEP member countries and the main leaders of the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce unanimously agreed to initiate the establishment of the RCEP Guangdong Business Alliance, jointly creating a platform for Guangdong business exchange, cooperation, and mutual assistance among RCEP member countries, promoting the formation of a Guangdong business alliance, deep integration, and strong cooperation within the region, and jointly promoting regional cooperation and development. In January of this year, Jiangmen, together with the China ASEAN Business Council and the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, jointly held a series of RCEP cooperation and development activities. They established the first RCEP economic, trade, technology, and cultural cooperation exchange center in China with Tsinghua Guangdong Qidi Group, and launched the world's first "Jiangmen Initiative" for Chinese businessmen to connect with RCEP economic and trade cooperation. The Guangdong Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Jiangmen City have collaborated to establish the RCEP Guangdong Business Alliance, creating an important node for deepening RCEP economic and trade cooperation, further leveraging the platform role of overseas Guangdong chambers of commerce and overseas economic and trade representative offices, tapping into the benefits of the agreement, supporting enterprises to expand their markets, and assisting in the high-quality implementation of Guangdong RCEP.
The RCEP Guangdong Business Alliance will coordinate and organize alliance members to jointly participate in important economic and trade activities and major project cooperation within the RCEP region; Establish an RCEP Enterprise Service Center to provide one-stop services for enterprises entering the RCEP market, including information resource sharing, industrial chain complementarity, supply chain interconnection, investment and financing interoperability, and commercial legal mutual assistance. At the same time, a series of mechanisms have been established for economic and trade exchange activities, cooperation, sharing of experience and achievements, mutual assistance in policies and regulations, mutual assistance in personnel exchanges, and rotating presidency.
The establishment of the Guangdong Business Alliance among RCEP member countries will drive enterprises to actively expand their international sales channels. ”Yang Huan, General Manager of Public Affairs at Asia Pacific Senbo (Guangdong) Paper Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Singapore's Golden Eagle Group, stated in a sharing speech at the meeting that the implementation of RCEP has provided great convenience for enterprises to explore and develop international markets. Singapore Golden Eagle Group has over 1 million hectares of raw material forest base in Indonesia, and the world's largest single pulp production line and the largest cultural paper production base in China. Its products are exported to overseas markets such as Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Yang Huan stated that the establishment of the alliance not only greatly benefits enterprises in terms of trade facilitation, but also helps them reduce trade costs appropriately in terms of exports.
At the meeting, Fang Lixu presented a letter of appointment on behalf of the New Zealand Guangdong Chamber of Commerce as the first rotating chairman of the alliance. Cao Yuheng, Vice President of the New Zealand Guangdong Chamber of Commerce, introduced that the 2022 Autumn Online Canton Fair will be promoted in Auckland, New Zealand, and the New Zealand Guangdong Commodity Expo and RCEP Guangdong Business Alliance Cooperation and Exchange Conference will be held to provide a platform for Guangdong enterprises to explore the markets of New Zealand and South Pacific countries.