ASEAN, the Opportunities

On October 15, 2014, “Sea Silk Road and ASEAN Opportunities Recommendation Conference” was held in Nantong. The Executive Director of China-ASEAN Business Council, China-ASEAN Chief Specialist Xu Ningning recommended that the Nantong enterprises should go to ASEAN and find the opportunities.

Frequent Cooperation

As a open coastal city, Nantong has a deep commercial cooperation with ASEAN, both parties have very active investments. According to the summary of Ministry of Commerce, till the end of 2013, ASEAN invested 522 projects and around USD 1.5 billion in Nantong and Nantong invested 58 projects and around USD 1 billion in ASEAN. The export and import amount reached USD 4.8 billion with year-to-year growth of 28.2%. At present, China and ASEAN countries are building upgrade Free Trade Zone which will provide more opportunities and further the geographic advantage of coastal city laid good foundations for Nantong enterprises going to ASEAN.

More Benefits to be Reaped

ASEAN is compromised by Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Philippine, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam 10 countries. By 2015, all these countries will not levy taxes to China enterprise in 90% products, which will let Nantong enterprises reap more benefits.

Business Opportunities in Future

In the opinion of Xu Ningning, Nantong is the city specialized in construction, shipbuilding and textile, and the ASEAN countries were full of rivers and seas having the requirement for ships and they need to build infrastructure facilities for development, which will provide great business opportunities for Nantong enterprises. Moreover, ASEAN is now building all kinds of Free Trade Zone which can be taken advantage of by Nantong enterprises going to international market.