Since the beginning of this year, the Covid-19 epidemic that has swept the world has hindered the cross-border trade of many countries. However, trade between China and ASEAN countries has bucked the trend. ASEAN surpassed the EU in the first half of this year and became China’s largest trading partner. According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs of China, in the first five months of this year, the total trade volume between China and ASEAN reached 1.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.2%. Among them, the total export value of ASEAN to China was 758.96 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%; the total export value of China to ASEAN was 936.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%, which was significantly higher than the previous overall growth rate of both sides’ foreign trade imports and exports.
The significant growth of bilateral trade between China and ASEAN during the epidemic is inseparable from the positive impact of the “China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Upgrade Protocol” after its full entry into force. In October 2019, as the outcome document of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Upgrade Negotiations, the “China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Upgrade Protocol” formally came into effect. Under the framework of the protocol, more than 90% of China and ASEAN products can achieve zero tariffs.
Recently, the Asia Digital Bank is actively building its digital asset trading inclusive self-financing platform to provide corporate customers, especially enterprises in China and the ASEAN free trade zone, with cross-border structured trade financing products and services to satisfy the escalating demand for cross-border financial services in the process of Chinese enterprises “going out” and “walking in” of ASEAN domestic enterprises. The Asia Digital Bank’s cross-border structured trade financing products can meet the diversified financing needs of cross-border trade companies. It is different from the previous simple settlement, financing and other basic financial products, but has credit support, hedging wealth management and cash management and other products with higher-end and complex structural features. In addition, it is not limited to a single transaction or certain transaction links, but focuses on providing enterprises with a complete set of “package” financial service solutions and full-process service support; at the same time, it extends from the financial needs of individual enterprises to multinational supply chains’ financial service demand. The Asia Digital Bank will recently rely on its digital asset trading inclusive financial platform to launch this cross-border structured trade financing product service to help further upgrade the scale of cross-border trade between China and ASEAN companies.
