Brunei sees ASEAN, China grow side by side

The forthcoming 22nd ASEAN Summit will be held here on April 24-25. Being the rotating chair of the ten-member Southeast Asian group, Brunei has witnessed a series of economic miracles during the growth of the bloc and China over the past two decades.

Brunei chaired ASEAN for the first time in 1989 when economic reconstruction was taking place in Asia.

After rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s, Japan and the "Four Asian Tigers," namely Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, had experienced economic reconstruction. The industrial shift as a result of it provided historic opportunities for the growth of ASEAN member states, especially in the field of foreign trade and economic cooperation, which has helped them build an export-oriented economy.

China's growth followed a similar curve after the country began to implement a policy of reform and opening to the outside world in late 1978. The strategic policy change of China has not only triggered the fast growth of the Chinese economy but also an increasingly closer relationship with its Southeast Asian neighbors.

China forged dialog relations with ASEAN in 1991, becoming the first country among ASEAN's dialog partners to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and the first to establish the strategic partnership with the bloc. Also in 1991, bilateral trade between China and ASEAN mounted to nearly 10 billion US dollars.

When Brunei took the ASEAN chair again in 1995, the tiny but rich sultanate saw the Sino-ASEAN trade exceeding 15 percent for the first time to hit 18.44 billion US dollars.

In 1997, China and ASEAN joined effort to cope with the Asian financial crisis. China's insistence on not devaluing its currency- renminbi helped safeguard economic and financial stability in the region as a whole.

Four years later, the 7th ASEAN Summit and the three "ASEAN+1" Summits were held in Brunei's capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan. In a press statement issued after the meetings, the ASEAN noted that China has been an important partner of ASEAN over the past decade, and its accession to the World Trade Organization will create market opportunities for both ASEAN and China. ASEAN also expressed deep gratitude for China's support in efforts to recover from the Asian financial crisis.

At the fifth China-ASEAN Summit in November 2001, the two parties reached an agreement on creating a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) in 10 years. The year 2001 witnessed the bilateral trade between China and ASEAN reaching 41.62 billion US dollars.

The China-ASEAN FTA, fully established in 2010 as scheduled, has played a major role in promoting bilateral trade and economic cooperation. At present, China is the largest trading partner of ASEAN while ASEAN is China's third largest trading partner.

Their bilateral trade in 2011 exceeded 400 billion U.S. dollars and the two sides have set a target of 500 billion US dollars for the year 2015.

This year, ASEAN and China are set to co-host a number of practical activities to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of their strategic partnership.

Only a half-century ago, Southeast Asia was an impoverished corner of the world. Today, it is one of the engines propelling global recovery from economic slowdown. It is the one of miracles Brunei has witnessed.