(VOVWORLD) - The Asian economy is projected to sustain recovery, and its annual growth rate may exceed 6.5 percent this year, as integration in regional trade strengthens, China Daily quoted a key report issued on Sunday.
The trade reliance among Asian economies remains high, and despite the impact of the pandemic, China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have consolidated the central position of trade in goods in Asia, according to the flagship report of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021. The forum opened on Sunday in Boao, a coastal town in China's southern Hainan province.
In addition, increasing service trade links, tourism interdependence and growing digital trade will foster regional economic integration, said researchers at the event, which is ongoing this week after 2020's absence due to the virus.
Asian economies will remain an "anchor" for multilateralism and play a key role in bolstering pandemic control, keeping industry and supply chains efficient and stable, and promoting trade and investment, said Li Baodong, secretary-general of the Boao Forum for Asia.