We Build SMEs, We Build The Future

April, ROYAL LAKE CLUB, KUALA LUMPUR – The 2024 China-ASEAN Economic Seminar was first mooted to commemorate the China-ASEAN People-to-People Exchange Year in 2024. The initiative, jointly spearheaded by the Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for the Asia Pacific (BRICAP) and the Guangzhou Institute of Greater Bay Area (GIG), was warmly received by the Sunway Business School of Sunway University, Malaysia. This resonates well with the call for fostering a more vibrant Track 2 diplomacy between China and ASEAN, notably in the realm of intellectual discourse on shared interests.

In light of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, which is underpinned by the three pillars of the Economic Community, Political Security Community, and Socio-cultural Community, deliberation on the creation of a common market in ASEAN is certainly relevant, as envisioned in the “Economic Community” pillar.

Augmented by the beaconing of the China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership Vision 2030, alongside the prevailing progression to China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, the ideal of realizing a China-ASEAN Common Market is now no longer a far-fetched dream, albeit not without anticipated headwinds ahead. Hence, we are hosting the seminar to explore the opportunities and challenges likely to arise in the pursuit of such a sizable Common Market encompassing over 2 billion people across the Asia-Pacific region.

The upcoming economic seminar could not have been possible without the foundational collaboration between the Malaysia-based Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for the Asia Pacific (BRICAP) and the Guangzhou Institute of Greater Bay Area (GIG) from Guangdong Province, China.

The pre-event media conference scheduled for April 19th, 2024, is all set to witness the coming into fruition of such a collaboration through a MOU signing.

Prior to this, BRICAP has successfully anchored its collaboration with several renowned Chinese think-tank entities and networks, including:

• China Institute for Reform and Development (CIRD) 【中国改革发展研究院】
• Silk Road Think Tank Association 【一带一路智库合作联盟】
• Guangdong Institute of International Strategies 【广东国际战略研究院】
• National Institute for South China Sea Studies 【中国南海研究院】
• RCEP Think Tank Network 【RCEP 智库联盟】