YAB Mr. Lim Guan Eng’s speech to the MCTIIC 2011 (Sep 10, 2011, 4pm) on “Powering Penang Growth by Adapting to China-AFTA”- A Key Gateway For China to ASEAN From A Cleaner, Greener & Safer Penang
1. When the China-Asean Free Trade Area (CAFTA) came into effect on the 1st of January, 2010, it was already evident to many of us that this will be Asia’s decade. Somewhere along this decade, China’s economy, measured in Purchasing Price Parity (PPP) terms, will overtake the US economy to become the largest economy in the world. With worries of managing government debt continuing to plague the European Union as well as the United States, Asia will have to take the lead in driving economic growth for the rest of the world.
2. The China-AFTA pact (CAFTA) is the result of a visionary proposal by former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji at the ASEAN-China Summit in November 2000. Even then, it was already clear to Premier Zhu and the leaders of the respective ASEAN countries that the rapidly expanding trade between China and ASEAN would grow by even greater leaps and bounds with the institutionalization of a Free Trade Area (FTA).
3. From 1991 to 2000, ASEAN-China trade grew at an average annual rate of 20.4%, much faster than either the growth in China’s global trade (15%) or in ASEAN’s global trade (11%). This rate accelerated to 30% in 2002, a clear sign of the dynamic economic activity that was taking place between China and ASEAN.
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