On the modern highway that runs from Nanning, the capital of the southern
province of Guangxi, down to Qinzhou port, something is conspicuously missing –
large trucks carrying the kind of 40-foot cargo containers common at ports
across the world.
The lack of freight points to the relative newness of
the port on the Beibu Gulf just east of Vietnam. But the Chinese government
hopes Qinzhou – the country’s sixth “free-trade port” – will eventually boost
incomes in inland provinces, partly though growing levels of trade with
southeast Asia.
Chinese premier Li Keqiang gave the port and Beijing’s
so-called “western development strategy” some momentum when he visited Qinzhou
in July. “Guangxi is the only provincial region with large ports in west China
and it has the ability and conditions to become a strategic regional pivot for
the whole of southwest China to develop a foreign-bound economy toward Asean
[Association of Southeast Asian Nations],” Mr Li told workers at the
port.
Underscoring the Chinese push to increase trade with southeast
Asia, Nanning recently hosted the 10th annual China-Asean trade expo, which
attracts thousands of southeast Asian traders who are desperately trying to sell
their products in the expanding Chinese consumer market.
Huang Junai, a
Taiwanese businessman whose company manufactures chopsticks in Vietnam for
export, says China is becoming his most important market. “Although China and
Japan both use chopsticks, China is the bigger market,” says Mr
Huang.
The expo also attracts Asean officials keen to attract investment.
This year, Moe Myint Kyaw, secretary-general of Myanmar’s Federation of Chambers
of Commerce & Industry, told the audience that his country needed investment
in agriculture, aquaculture and infrastructure.
As part of its attempt to
capitalise on the Chinese market, Myanmar has set up a trade office in
Nanning.
China’s push to boost trade with its neighbours has so far been
successful. It has become Asean’s largest trading partner, and over the past
decade Sino-Asean trade has grown 600 per cent to $400bn last year.
While
many southeast Asian countries, and particularly Indonesia, have faced a rocky
few months since the US Federal Reserve started talking about tapering its
bond-buying programme, the impact on Sino-Asean trade has so far been relatively
muted. In October, the government said total trade between China
and
Asean in the first three quarters of 2013 was $322bn, a rise of 12 per cent over
the same period the year before.
Sino-Asean trade is also likely to rise
after the completion of a regional trade agreement – the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership – being negotiated by Asean members and China, Japan,
India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
China has also undertaken
a charm offensive to win over southeast Asian countries that want to boost trade
ties with their neighbour but are wary of its growing might in the
region.
With US President Barack Obama forced to abandon a trip to
Indonesia for the recent Apec summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping had the floor
to himself. After the event, Mr Li embarked on a tour of the region designed to
shore up support.
But, while Beijing is pulling out all the stops to make
new friends, not everything is going its way.
After Typhoon Haiyan
devastated the Philippines in early November, China was criticised for initially
offering only $100,000 – about 5 per cent of what Indonesia pledged – to help
the relief effort.
The paltry offer, which was later raised by Rmb10m
($1.64m), was seen as a result of tense relations between Beijing and Manila
over contested territory in the South China Sea.
But despite the tensions
with China, many traders at the China-Asean expo said the geopolitics would have
little impact on their push to make money.
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