There was a Shanxi-ASEAN Trade and Economic Cooperation meeting recently in the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi province where a strategic cooperation memorandum was signed by the Shanxi Commerce Department and the ASEAN Trade Promotion Association.

The memorandum calls for Shanxi and ASEAN to focus on technological cooperation, R&D, market development, and trade cooperation in agriculture, farm products, bio-pharmaceuticals, energy, and mining. They will also support enterprises in engaging in exchanges and develop a trade site to promote technology, project cooperation, and communication between the top technicians of enterprises, research institutes, industries and associations.

Dong Xide, the Shanxi provincial Agriculture Department’s vice-director general, said that Shanxi and ASEAN nations are trade partners in traditional agricultural products and complement each other a great deal and have great possibilities for cooperation. And, Dong added, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area had provided a bigger site for further cooperation.

The Free Trade Area was established in Jan 2010 by China and the 10 ASEAN nations. After its opening, bilateral trade volume grew considerably, from $377 million in 2009 to $881 million in 2011, an average annual increase of 52.8 percent. It has become a giant economic group, involving 1.9 billion people in 11 countries, with a GDP worth $6 trillion and is now the largest free trade area among developing nations and the most populated free trade area in the world.

Bilateral trade in the first quarter of this year reached $184 million, up 13.2 percent from the same quarter last year. ASEAN is now Shanxi’s fifth largest trade partner and fourth biggest export and import market, as can be seen by the first quarter trade report.