The inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Summit, which kicked off in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, marks the beginning of a new chapter for strategic trilateral cooperation, according to the Malaysian Minister for Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
The summit was held on the sidelines of the ongoing 46th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, which opened in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Leaders and representatives from ASEAN, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and China, discussed deepening cooperation in various fields and agreed more work can be done, according to Zafrul.
"Definitely, what we've seen and witnessed today is very important. This is the first ever ASEAN-GCC-China summit. And the main focus of the summit has been really talking about how ASEAN and GCC and China [can] get together, work on sectors or issues like investments and trade. But at the same time, we also reiterated our position that we feel that more work can be done," Zafrul said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) following the meeting.
He also noted that discussions also underscored the importance of emerging sectors and on providing more support to help the growth of private and smaller-sized enterprises.
"We have talked as well about areas like digital economy. We talked about the green economy. We talked about being more inclusive, looking at micro and small, medium enterprises as well. And we also talked a bit about the supply chain," he added.
Last week, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that China and the 10 ASEAN countries have fully completed negotiations on the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).
The upgraded agreement introduces nine new chapters covering areas such as the digital economy, the green economy, and supply chain connectivity, according to the ministry.
Hailing the progress made, Zafrul said the upgraded FTA will further promote both trade and investment between the two major developing economies.
"We are quite excited by these new chapters. But what's important is that ASEAN is now China's largest trading partner as well, right? China has always been ASEAN's largest trading partner. And what we've seen is that the last one or two years, especially, we've also seen quite a big increase in trade between ASEAN and China. And talking about trade, China also has been a major investor in ASEAN as well. So we hope that this agreed ASEAN-China FTA will not just improve trade, but also increase investments in the region," he said.
ASEAN-GCC-China summit opens new chapter for trilateral cooperation: Malaysian trade minister
