China’s BRI seen boosting trade with Asean to US$2.1 trillion

KUALA LUMPUR: China”s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) is expected to boost the flow of trade between China and Asean’s six biggest economies – Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – to an investment amount of about US$2.1 trillion by 2030, revealed an analysis by HSBC .

HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Mukhtar Hussain said BRI was a strategy to build the transport links and logistics capacity to boost the flow of trade between China and more than 60 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe to an estimated US$2.5 trillion annually in the coming decade, from about US$1 trillion now.

He said that the same analysis showed that governments currently had plans in place to deliver just US$910 billion of it.

“Given the right incentives, the private sector can bridge that gap - especially if companies in Asia and Europe can find the right opportunities to work together,” said Mukhtar in a statement today.

Business connections between Asean and Europe are already strong, he said.

“More than 300 Chinese-funded enterprises have set up in 26 economic cooperation zones in eight Asean countries, investing a total of US$1.77bil, by October 2016 under the auspices of BRI projects,” said Mukhtar.

Asean economies including Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have already launched BRI-related deals with China, with several projects now entering implementation stage and many more in the pipeline, he said.

“Given Malaysia”s strategic location along the Strait of Malacca - one of the busiest trade routes in the world - the country is seen as a valuable connector for China”s broader infrastructure plans.

“In particular, it is a key component of the high-speed rail line, running from Southern China through Laos to Thailand”s industrial east coast and then on to Malaysia and Singapore,” he added. – Bernama