China's rapid growth and prosperity will benefit other countries especially those in the Asia-Pacific region, participants reached the common understanding at the end of a two-day Pacific Basin Council (PBEC) meeting Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told reporters that China has kept a robust growth and its prosperity will contribute to the prosperity of other countries.
He said China is a big market and it can not produce everything by itself, and it need to import something. Other countries should produce something that is needed by China.
In addition, some 500,000 Chinese tourists visited Malaysia last year and more are expected this year, while Chinese businessmen have begun to launch investment in Malaysia, he added.
The participants of the meeting all agreed that while one country is prosperous, other countries may benefit.
Mahathir said, for example, when Japan invested in Malaysia, they got prosperous. Japan and the Japanese companies profited from these investments. In addition, Malaysia became a good market for Japanese products and learnt how to produce what foreign investors did.
What is clear is that helping others prosper also helps oneself get prosperous and generally contributes to the rest of the world, he said.
China has pursued a more opening-up policy since it entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), which provides expanded cooperation and chances for PBEC members, the participants agreed.
Gloria Arroyo, president of the Philippines, said at the meeting that China's entry into the WTO will greatly enhance its already strong impact on the region's economies.
ASEAN nations must all embark on a process of collective reflection on how to sustain the competitiveness of their exports and capitalize on the opportunities presented by a more open China, Arroyo said, adding a framework for this may well be offered by the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement proposed by China.
Although China has attracted 80 percent of the world's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) entering Asia, but China has 1.3 billion people and Philippine has only 75 million, some five percent of China's population, so it will be balanced if Philippine attracts as much as five percent FDI of China's.
Singapore's senior minister of state for education, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said that with China's opening up, more and more Chinese students were found to study abroad, which brought economic profits and qualified human resources to other countries.
Stanley O. Roth, vice-president for Asia International Relations of Boeing Company (China) said one can not get the upper hand in every sector. For example, Singapore takes the lead in bio- tech and India in IT sector, and all countries can supplement each other in various fields.
Bob Lees, former president of the PBEC and now senior executive advisor of Asia Pacific KPMG Consulting told Xinhua that one or two years ago, the people in Asia-Pacific regions feared that Chinese products would flood to their market. But currently, through his work contacts with the officials and businessmen in the region, he got the idea that they have changed their attitude, for China not only exports products, but also pours investment in other countries, so they began to get involved in China's success.
Lees suggested that the countries in Asia-Pacific region should provide conditions to attract investment from China and to seek more chances on China's market.
( May 9, 2002)
