China-ASEAN cooperation to be accelerated amid unprecedented challenges on world economy
22/10/2008 17:07
The 5th China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo and 5th
China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit opened in Nanning today, with
participants voicing views and proposing measures to further cooperation in this
region and better cope with the financial crisis in the Western
world.
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan attended the opening ceremonies of
the Expo and the Summit in Nanning, capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region in south China, together with leaders, high-ranking officials and
business people from the 10 ASEAN countries.
Surin Pitsuwan,
secretary-general of the ASEAN, said at the Expo that China and these countries
are building the biggest free trade zone in the world that comprises nearly 1.9
billion people.
The Expo was proposed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao five
years ago. The 10 ASEAN countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam with a total
area of 4.5 million square kilometers, whose economies were seriously hurt by
the financial crisis in 1997.
As the largest developing country in the world,
China should step up cooperation with the ASEAN countries in light of the
uncertainties of the world economy, said Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen
Deming.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the 5th China-ASEAN Business and
Investment Summit, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the rampant economic
crisis in the developed countries reminded him of the Great Depression in
1930.
"Although the crisis would not have major impact on ASEAN, it truly
affects the manufacturing and export industries. Millions of people will be
affected. A diversified export frame work will help us get through the crisis,"
he said.
"We need more exports to China and India, the two economic engines
for our growth in the future," the Cambodian prime minister said.
Wang Qishan
said at the business summit that in face of unprecedented challenges to the
world economy, it is of special importance to accelerate China-ASEAN
cooperation.
"The two sides need to further deepen cooperation in trade in
goods and services, continue to strengthen communication and consultation on the
Investment Agreement of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA), work to conclude
negotiations and sign the agreement at an early date and ensure that China-ASEAN
FTA will be established as scheduled," Wang added.
The China-ASEAN FTA is the
first free trade area agreement signed by China. In November 2004, both sides
concluded the FTA agreement on trade in goods and services, which came into
effect in July 2005, reducing tariff rates on 7,000 commodities. In January
2007, the FTA agreement on trade in services was also signed.
The two sides
vowed to complete the China-ASEAN FTA before 2010.
Wang also called on both
sides to step up sub-regional cooperation. "As an active supporter of ASEAN
economic integration, China is working with countries concerned to jointly
promote the transition of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) from a transport
corridor to an economic corridor and explore ways to carry out economic
cooperation in the Pan-Beibu Bay," he said.
The GMS is composed of countries
sharing the Mekong River, including Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and
Vietnam.
China's 11th five-year program for Western Development has placed
the Beibu Bay economic zone as one of the three economic development zones in
the west which enjoy priority in economic development.
Myanmar Prime Minister
General Thein Sein said at the summit, "Our goal is to set up an ASEAN economic
community in 2015 and we' re accelerating the construction of the China-ASEAN
FTA."
China was the fourth largest investor in Myanmar. Bilateral trade
volume stood at US$2.4 billion in 2007, accounting for 24.1 percent of the total
trade volume of Myanmar. "I hope Chinese entrepreneurs could grasp more business
opportunities," Thein Sein added.
China and ASEAN countries must enhance
political and economic ties, help each other and work together to cope with the
might- coming difficulties caused by the global financial crisis, said Prospero
C. Nograles, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines.
The
robust growth of China's economy has become a leading force to promote the
region's economic development, Laos Vice President Boungnang Volachit said,
which he believed would continue to help boost the economic development of the
ASEAN countries.
Xinhua
|
