STORY: Deepening ASEAN-China cooperation to benefit people: ASEAN Secretary-General
DATELINE: Sept. 8, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:35
LOCATION: Jakarta
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of ASEAN Summit venue
2. SOUNDBITE (English): KAO KIM HOURN, Secretary-General of ASEAN

STORYLINE:

The 43rd ASEAN Summit concluded on Thursday in Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Secretary-General of ASEAN Kao Kim Hourn expected a deepening ASEAN-China cooperation that will bring benefits to people on both sides.

SOUNDBITE (English): KAO KIM HOURN, Secretary-General of ASEAN
"ASEAN and China have been working together through many different mechanisms set on all levels and through the various sector, areas of cooperation. The cooperation moving forward remains strong. We will continue together particularly in focus on economic cooperation and economic integration. We need to continue to increase our trade.

We hope this continues also in areas of connectivity, tourism, also in other pillars of the ASEAN community and look forward also to receiving more of China's participation in the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Forum.

We're aligning the ASEAN Community's Post-2025 Vision with the BRI. Yes, there are many areas. One would be again, still economic cooperation particularly in the areas of digital economy, blue economy, green economy, also in energy sector, particularly in the energy transition, climate change area also, of course, in people-to-people cooperation.

Next year we agree to have the China-ASEAN Year of Cultural and People-to-people Exchanges. The proposal certainly would benefit the people on both sides.

Of course infrastructure is very important. We hope that China continues to invest in the infrastructure and do projects across ASEAN member states. This identity will benefit the ASEAN society, ASEAN people. We hope also to raise another two things. One of course is the upgrade of the bilateral FTA between ASEAN and China. We hope this will become more pro-business and therefore will increase the level of economic cooperation between two sides particularly when it comes to investment and trade. The implementation will increase more economic dynamism but also the economic benefits for both sides."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Jakarta.
(XHTV)