Northeast
Asia, comprising China, Japan, South and North Korea and Mongolia,
represents the biggest source of economic growth potential in Asia,
said former Pakistani President Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, who
chaired Sunday morning’s plenary session on the region’s economic
cooperation at the annual Boao
Forum for Asia (BFA) in Hainan Province.
About one-third of the world's population lives in East Asia, and
its overall GDP increased fourfold in the past two decades.
Naturally its economic development will have significant effects on
Asia's global influence, said Yoriko Kawaguchi, special assistant
to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
The
BFA's first annual report titled "Economic Integration in Asia,"
which was released Friday, revealed that East Asian intraregional
trade grew even more rapidly than its global trade, and on a global
basis its share of intraregional trade tripled to 6.5 percent from
1985 to 2001.
Asia
has
become the new growth engine of the world economy. While assisting
neighboring countries' economic development by doing business and
offering investment, Kawaguchi admitted that Japan itself also
benefited substantially from the region's economic growth,
especially for its own economic recovery. This is the embodiment of
the BFA's permanent theme, "Asia Searching for Win-Win," she
said.
She
proposed establishing an East Asian community.?Japan, as
Asia's biggest economic body, plays its proper role in the
community's establishment.
Kawaguchi, also
former Japanese foreign minister, said Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi held a meeting with President Hu Jintao in Jakarta
Saturday. In their closed-door talks, Koizumi stressed the
importance of the development of Sino-Japanese friendship, saying
that it is not only beneficial to China and Japan, but also has
great influence in Asia and the international community.
China’s rapid
development is an opportunity rather than a threat to Japan and
this has been gradually accepted by more and more Japanese people,
he reportedly said.
Kawaguchi
promised
that Japan will look honestly at its history and try its best to
win neighboring countries' political trust so that it can make full
use of opportunities brought about by the region's rapid economic
growth.
China's peaceful
rise will not happen overnight, said Zheng Bijian, chairman of the
China Reform Forum.
In the first half of the 21st century, the country expects to
face three fundamental challenges in the area of economic and
social growth: the shortage of resources, especially energy;
environmental deterioration; and a series of issues in coordinating
social and economic development, he said.
These challenges have all contributed to a bottleneck in the
nation's sustainable development. He said that in response, China
should blaze a new path of industrialization characterized by
high-technology input, economic efficiency, low consumption of
resources and low environmental pollution, and continue to
participate in economic globalization and build a harmonious
society.
An important result
of China's peaceful rise is the emergence of a huge market with a
population of 1.3 to 1.5 billion. "Therefore, what China's peaceful
rise will mean to Asia and the world is opportunities rather than
threat," he said.
Along with the rapid
advancement of globalization, regionalization is also expanding,
which presents both opportunities and challenges, said Chung
Moon-soo, economic policy advisor to South Korean President Roh
Moo-hyun.
The financial crisis
in 1997 put "Asian value" at question, he said. However, having
overcome the crisis, a new Asian era is emerging once again.
Chung urged all
Asian countries to enhance regional economic cooperation, which
will contribute to promoting regional economic growth and stability
while putting Asia on equal footing with other regional economies
such as the EU and NAFTA.
For this reason,
Asian countries should expedite their long-overdue free trade area
(FTA) negotiations, he said.
Chung also
emphasized that mutual understanding and trust are an important
prerequisite for Asia to achieve regional economic cooperation and
regional peace and prosperity.
"If the leaders of
Germany and France had not overcome their past history through
conscious and sincere efforts, it would have been impossible to
make the European economic integration as successful as it is
today," he said.
Nonetheless, with
leadership that fails to win the trust of neighboring countries,
Asia is still living under the shadow of its past history, he
said.
Only after
expressing deep and honest contrition for the wrongdoings of the
past and subsequent reconciliation can real economic integration
and development be achieved, he said.
(China.org.cn by
staff reporter Shao Da, April 24, 2005)
