KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 25 -- Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue to expand, serving as an engine for global economic growth, Malaysian International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Ong Kian Ming said on Friday.
Speaking at the 2019 China Macroeconomic Roundtable "Economic Forecast, High Quality Development, and Policy Implications" hosted in Xiamen University Malaysia, Ong said despite downward forecasts, strong economic activity between China and the ASEAN would help both weather the storm.
As the economic growth in China and Southeast Asia would continue to outstrip the economic growth of the United States as well as Europe, the greater cooperation between China and the ASEAN will have a bigger impact to the wider world, Ong said.
"We definitely can see Asia not only as an engine of services and manufacture and production but also later on as the engine of growth for the global economy. So there are many opportunities for China and Southeast Asia to work together in order to improve the economic outlook for our respective countries, as well as globally," he said.
Jointly organized by the Center for Macroeconomics Research at Xiamen University and Xiamen University Malaysia, this year's overseas forecast conference is the first time that the event was held in Malaysia.
At the conference, the team from the Center for Macroeconomics Research at Xiamen University released China's main macroeconomic indicators for 2019-2020 and reported its policy implications based on simulation analysis.
Also released was the findings of this year's "Economists Questionnaire Survey on China's Macroeconomic Outlook," which was co-organized by Xiamen University and Economic Information Daily newspaper.
Since 2006, Xiamen University has been holding China's macroeconomic forecast conference twice a year.