Chairman Wang Jiwu: Take Technological Innovation Synergy as the Focus of RCEP Cooperation and Make Concerted Efforts to Create a Prosperous Asia-Pacific RegionPrint

Post Time：2022-05-06来源：The RCEP Opportunity

The “Chinese Enterprises Take Actions to Seize the RCEP Opportunity” sponsored by the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee was held recently, where the entrepreneurs and business association leaders at the meeting fully recognized the significance of RCEP’s implementation. Wang Jiwu, Chairman of TusHoldings, who was invited to attend the meeting, gave a speech  analyzing and discussing the practices and plans on how the enterprises seize the opportunities  and achieve new development as the RCEP took effect. He also put forward suggestions for enhancing cooperation and development.

The speech delivered by Chairman Wang Jiwu is given below:

TusHoldings is a technology service group with a global business presence and it is also the largest global innovation network builder and operator in the world, including the operations in many countries incorporated in RCEP. The signing and implementation of the RCEP agreement is an important development opportunity for TusHoldings. With the signing of RCEP agreement, TusHoldings has mainly promoted scientific and technological innovation cooperation with Japan and South Korea, with Shenyang and Qingdao as the bases. In Shenyang, China-South Korea  Sci-Tech Park is under construction. The Northeast Asia headquarters of TusHoldings in Qingdao has also carried out extensive cooperation with Japanese universities, governments, enterprises and financial institutions. In Guangxi and Yunnan, TusHoldings cooperated with local governments to establish a cross-border e-commerce network. At present, the cross-border e-commerce industry is developing very well in Guangxi, where TusHoldings has established a regional innovation network, in addition to cooperation with ASEAN countries. Some days ago, we and the RCEP Industry Cooperation Committee joined hands for the establishment of a large-scale innovation base and a large-scale industrial park based on RCEP in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The relevant work is currently in progress.

I’d like to discuss about how the enterprises can take the opportunities brought by RCEP for further development.

First, the implementation of RCEP is indeed an extremely important development opportunity for the businesses all over the world, including TusHoldings. After all, it is the largest free trade area agreement in the world, with a population of more than 2 billion in 15 countries, which is of  very considerable scale. I myself have also noticed that after the signing of this agreement, not only TusHoldings and other domestic enterprises, but also the institutions in other countries are all showing much interest in taking this opportunity.

In the meantime, we also feel the difficulties in the implementation process. In addition to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, as is known to us all, there are also the impact of unstable political situation in the world. These factors, however, will not and cannot stop the general situation and the overriding trend of RCEP cooperation. In this regard, I think RCEP member states and the enterprises concerned should sort out the thinking and contemplate on what we should do and what innovative measures we can take to achieve our common goals.

First of all, we must be aware that, as the largest tariff agreement, the focus of RCEP is on the market, more precisely, a common market or a fully circulated trading market. Therefore, the promotion of exchanges, traffic, circulation, and transaction volume should be our main goal of the market construction, and the transaction volume and circulation should be expanded as soon as possible. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to step up the construction of infrastructure in terms of hardware and realize interconnection. In the sense of software, we should further refine and improve other RCEP-based documents and agreements of all parties concerned, including the investment agreements that are friendly to all.

RCEP is an agreement based on the market and target transaction volume. The key to the market is the actual consumption capacity. At current stage, the largest zone that RCEP covers is the ten ASEAN countries, whose population tops 600 million, which is close to that of the EU. But their GDP last year was about US$3 trillion, only 1/5-1/6 of that of the EU. This suggests that most of the RCEP member states are the middle-income country. Although China has made tremendous economic progress, its per capita GDP still has a lot of room for development compared with developed countries and regions outside the RCEP, such as the European Union countries and the United States. Given this, it is my opinion that we should pay attention to the low- and middle-income earners, the largest part of the more than 2 billion population in the RCEP region. Only when all parties concerned agree to take effective measures to increase their income can they raise their purchasing power. This is the basis for achieving a large market transaction volume. Strengthening cooperation between countries in this regard will surely lead to win-win results.

Second, as the world’s largest regional trade organization, the coordinated development of the industrial chain must be achieved to raise transaction volume, and the effective implementation of RCEP depends on the joint efforts of all member countries in the region in terms of industrial chain coordination. The industrial chain coordination is circular, which is precisely a major feature of RCEP compared to the North American or EU economic circles. RCEP covers a great number of population and a large number of countries, but a large gap exists in the economic and technological development level among the regional countries. This feature can also be a major advantage for the countries to promote the coordinated development of industrial chain.

Third, the key to achieving the synergy of the industrial chain is achieving the synergy of technological innovation. The breakthrough point in this region is to realize the income increase of the broadest middle- and low-income groups. Of course, industrial breakthroughs are required and to break through the middle-income trap, we must rely on technological innovation, industrial upgrading and the development of emerging industries. Without technological innovation, there will be no industrial upgrading and the development of emerging industries. Another major feature of the RCEP region is the step-by-step gap in the development level of technology and emerging industries. TusHoldings has been engaged in technological innovation. We have established cooperation relationship with Tokyo University and Seoul University, as well as with Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and others. Only through the promotion of scientific and technological innovation can we achieve industrial chain synergy and promote the innovation chain through scientific and technological innovation. The innovation chain drives small and medium-sized technology-driven enterprises and emerging industrial chains. The emerging industrial chain will naturally promote the coordination of the entire industrial chain. For this reason, I think it should be a very effective measure to take the synergy of scientific and technological innovation as a focus of RCEP cooperation. 

Finally, I also hope that, in the RCEP cooperation, TusHoldings and partners from various countries can expand cooperation results as soon as possible and effectively establish an RCEP-based scientific and technological innovation network. So far, we have achieved cooperation with Japan and South Korea in Northeast Asia and cooperation with ASEAN by  initially establishing an innovation network. Next step, we look forward to improving this network as soon as possible, so that the people, information and technology will flow dynamically and  the mutual cooperation of the industrial chain is achieved for the overall industrial transformation, the technological transformation, the income increase in the region, as well as the breakthrough in the middle income trap. It is my wish that ultimately RCEP grows as the world’s largest market, the world's most active highland for technological innovation, and the world’s most dynamic coordination area for innovation chain and industrial chain, as well as the world’s prosperous region with most consumption power and consumption potential.