CHINA: Tariffs and policy restrictions are among the impediments to the development of a more robust trade of electric vehicles (EVs) between China and member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a Chinese official said.
In an interview with the reporters, Guigang Government Deputy Director of Gangbei District Lin Shaohua said that the industrial park in her jurisdiction was built with the aim of serving the markets of Asean member-countries.
Gangbei District is located in Guigang City, Guangxi.
“Our production base and industrial park was built to serve the market of Asean countries,” Shaohua said.
“We still have a long way to go in the industry. Because there are still barriers like tariff and some policy problems, the export and cooperation between our two sides have still not reached the ideal state,” she added.
Shaohua said they have been dealing with production base problems and have been actively exporting to different Asean member-countries, but noted the shipment volume was not yet enough.
“Even though we have small amounts of export to Asean countries, a large batch of exported vehicles is still not achieved, Shaohua said.
“We hope that in the future, more electric vehicles, like whole batch or whole groups, will be exported to Asean countries,” she added.
EVs from the district have already been introduced to some Asean member-countries, such as Singapore and Laos. Also, a deal to export 20,000 EVs to Indonesia has been inked.
Shaohua said that the total number of EVs produced in the district has reached or topped 5 million, and many are equipped with advanced tools and components.
However, she noted that there are still problems, like a united standard on batteries and tools for EVs, that need fixing.
“We believe that as long as the two sides can find solutions to gradually deal with the problems, the cooperation will become larger and communication will expand,” Shaohua said.
“To be honest, the goal of our industrial park is to build a production base covering over 10,000 mu (about 666 hectares),” she added.
“Now, the main market for us is the southern and western part of China, but we hold the goal to expand the whole Asean countries … Guigang is the backbone city in the business with Asean in Guangxi,” Shaohua continued.
The China-Asean New Energy Electric Vehicle Production Base will cover 6.6 million square meters with a total cost of 15.7 billion yuan (approximately $2.15 billion).
The Guigang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government said the production base has so far introduced more than 100 well-known domestic finished automobile enterprises such as Emma, Luyuan, Tailg, Lima, Zuboo and OPAI, as well as supporting enterprises such as Haopai and Feineng.
With high-quality and low-priced products, and taking advantage of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China-Asean and other trade agreements, the export trade volume of the China-Asean New Energy Electric Vehicle Production Base reached more than $8.7 million in 2022.
Source: Manila Times