STORY: China, ASEAN take new steps to build community with shared future
SHOOTING TIME: file & recent footage
DATELINE: Oct. 11, 2024
LENGTH: 0:01:21
LOCATION: Beijing
CATEGORY: POLITICS/ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of China and ASEAN countries
2. SOUNDBITE (English): KAO KIM HOURN, ASEAN secretary-general
3. various of China-ASEAN Expo

STORYLINE:

Taking up to a quarter of the world's population, China and ASEAN possess enormous market potential, which serves as a prominent advantage in economic development amid the sluggish global economic recovery.
   
China-ASEAN cooperation was marked by a new milestone as the substantial conclusion of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Negotiations was announced at the 27th ASEAN-China Summit held on Thursday.

With the new step forward, it is hoped that the two sides will jointly build a hyper-scale market, tap the cooperation potential in areas such as digital economy and green development, and lead East Asian economic integration.

SOUNDBITE (English): KAO KIM HOURN, ASEAN secretary-general
"I think this is gonna be very substantial to upgrade the CAFTA (China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement) because we want to see that these activities become more relevant for the businesses. Both the ASEAN and China have been the largest trading partners for each other. What we would like to see is that there would be widening cooperation, which would deepen, meaning more trade, more investment, more tourism, more people-to-people connectivity. Because we have shared interest. Our shared interest is to continue to build our prosperity for the people."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Beijing.
(XHTV)