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asean countries are located at the intersection of land and sea along the belt and road initiative and are key areas for high-quality joint construction of the belt and road initiative. over the past 10 years, china and asean countries have strengthened the docking of development strategies, further promoted trade, investment and connectivity, and successively completed a number of landmark projects, jointly describing the "fine brushwork" of jointly building the "belt and road".

china and 10 asean countries have signed cooperation documents on jointly building the "belt and road". the “belt and road” initiative is actively aligned with the development strategies of asean countries, such as indonesia’s “global maritime pivot” concept, vietnam’s “two corridors and one circle”, “thailand 4.0” strategy, cambodia’s “four corners strategy”, and brunei’s “vision 2035”.

data show that since 2013, trade between china and asean has grown at an average annual rate of 7.5%, with bilateral trade volume reaching us$911.7 billion in 2023. china has remained asean’s largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, and asean has been china’s largest trading partner for four consecutive years. partner. as of july 2024, the cumulative two-way investment between china and asean countries has exceeded us$400 billion, and the cumulative turnover of contracted projects completed by chinese companies in asean has exceeded us$440 billion. china has signed bilateral investment agreements with 10 asean countries, signed production capacity cooperation documents with cambodia, laos, vietnam and other countries, and jointly built cambodia's sihanoukville special economic zone, thailand's china-thailand rayong industrial park, china-malaysia and china-indonesia. industrial parks such as "two countries, two parks" have made the industrial and supply chains of both parties more closely connected.

interconnection continues to become deeper and more substantial. the opening of the china-laos railway has realized the lao people's dream of "changing a land-locked country into a land-linked country". data recently released by kunming customs shows that since the opening of the china-laos railway to traffic on december 3, 2021, as of september 16, 2024, a total of 10.002 million tons of goods imported and exported via the china-laos railway have been supervised, inspected, and released, with a value of 40.77 billion. yuan.

indonesia is the first place to jointly build the "21st century maritime silk road". the jakarta-bandung high-speed railway jointly built by china and indonesia is the first high-speed railway between indonesia and southeast asia. it connects the two major cities in indonesia efficiently and brings southeast asia into the era of high-speed rail. since its official opening in october last year, the passenger flow of the jakarta-bandung high-speed ​​railway has maintained a high growth trend, providing people along the line with a convenient and comfortable travel experience.

green cooperation is in the ascendant. the indonesian zilata floating photovoltaic power generation project undertaken by a chinese enterprise successfully achieved full-capacity grid-connected power generation in november last year. it is the largest floating photovoltaic project in southeast asia and is expected to provide clean power to about 50,000 households. cooperation between china and thailand in the fields of wind power, photovoltaic power and other renewable energy has also achieved many positive results. the ubon ratchathani floating photovoltaic power station in khon kaen province, thailand, built by a chinese enterprise, was connected to the grid to generate electricity in march this year. this is the first project by the electricity authority of thailand that integrates surface photovoltaics, clean hydropower, high-efficiency energy storage systems and smart energy management systems. demonstration power station project.

the cultural affinity between china and asean has become more prominent. china has extensively carried out small, beautiful, beneficial and practical livelihood projects in asean countries, and provided various professional skills training to help local people get rid of poverty and become rich. this year is the china-asean year of people-to-people exchanges. currently, there are more than 2,300 direct flights between china and asean countries every week. in the first eight months of this year, 16.205 million chinese citizens visited asean countries, a year-on-year increase of 105.2%; 9.69 million people from asean countries entered mainland china, a year-on-year increase of 113.1%.

china and asean have a long history of good relations and are good neighbors, good friends and good partners. looking to the future, both sides will work together to build a closer china-asean community with a shared future and create a better and more prosperous future.

■our reporter li ning