A New Chapter Written for Asian Cooperation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 25, 2003

A New Chapter Written for Asian Cooperation

As the saying goes, "A wise man's action is taken when the time is suitable". In recent years, the dynamic situation of regional cooperation and the accelerated process have become a salient characteristic of the development of the situation in the Asian region. As a member of Asia, China will continue to devote its efforts to promoting Asian cooperation.

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International conferences at which related ASEAN countries discussed matters of regional cooperation were held one after another in the latter half of this month with gratifying results.

Between June 16 and 19, the 36th ASEAN foreign ministers conference and the foreign ministers conference of the ASEAN Regional Forum were held in succession in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, the second foreign ministers conference of Asian cooperation dialog was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand between June 21 and 22. These important international gatherings have promoted Asian cooperation, started operating the Pan-Asian cooperation mechanism and enhanced the cooperation awareness of countries of ASEAN and the entire Asia-Pacific region, they are of great and far-reaching significance to Asia's regional cooperation and have written with a thick stroke on the peace and development of the Pan-Asian region.

Asian cooperation dialog, an official dialog mechanism of Pan-Asian cooperation, was put forward by Thai Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra in 2001, designed to promote dialog and cooperation throughout Asia. The first Asian cooperation dialog conference of foreign ministers was held in Cha-am, a southern city of Thailand, in June 2002. The conference determined to take economic cooperation as the focus and start first in the concrete fields of culture, tourism and agriculture, in the hope that more Asian countries would be drawn into participation, so as to give real expression to the Asian color. Besides regional financial cooperation, the liberalization process of trade and investment and other issues, the foreign ministers conference also discussed the present state and prospect for the Asian region to carry out cooperation in the fields of agriculture, tourism, energy security, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, e-business and reduction of poverty.

Starting up the Asian bond fund was a major item for the conference. The idea of setting up an Asian regional bond market originated from a recall of the painful experience of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. At the East Asian Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum in October 2002, the Thai government set forth a proposal on establishing an Asian bond fund. This proposal immediately received enthusiastic response from many Asian countries and regions. On June 2, this year, the organization of the East Asian and Pacific region's Central Banks governors conference attended by 11 Asian countries and regions declared its intention to cooperate with international clearing banks to set up a bond fund with a total sum of US$1 billion. The immediate significance of the Asian bond fund is that investors from Asian countries and regions can make full use of the national currencies of this region and the world's highest savings ratio and abundant foreign exchange reserves of the region to choose a financial market of this region for investments, this not only facilitates the development and growth of this region's economy, but also can reduce the restriction imposed by capital outside the region on the Asian economy and prevent economic and financial risks. On the background of economic globalization, regional financial cooperation plays an active role in establishing a sound and stable national and regional financial system and is vitally important to the sustainable development of a country and the entire region.

Besides the new achievements in regional financial cooperation, the Asian cooperation dialog conference of foreign ministers also agreed to boost cooperation in 17 fields including agriculture, and science and technology. Based on their own advantages, the various member countries can voluntarily take the lead in assuming responsibility for cooperation in a certain sphere, this resources advantage-sharing method embodies a trend of regional cooperation and helps enhance the overall awareness of Asian countries. China has expressed its willingness to act as a leading country in agricultural cooperation. The conference also accepted Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and Sri Lanka as new members of Asian cooperation dialog. The conference further indicates that based on the feature of the diversity of member countries, the Asian cooperation dialog mechanism stresses dialogs conducted on an equal footing, reaching a unanimity through consultation and giving due consideration to the characteristics of the sustainability of various parties, compatibility , respect for diversity and facilitation to the participants.

As the saying goes, "A wise man's action is taken when the time is suitable". In recent years, the dynamic situation of regional cooperation and the accelerated process have become a salient characteristic of the development of the situation in the Asian region. As a member of Asia, China will continue to devote its efforts to promoting Asian cooperation.

Over the past year since the establishment of Asian cooperation dialog, in conformity with the general trend that various countries of this region have devoted their efforts to economic development and social stability, multi-level and wide-area dialogs and exchange activities have been carried out inside and outside Asia, forcefully boosting dialog and cooperation throughout Asia. People have every reason to believe that the Asian cooperation dialog mechanism will surely promote continuous achievement of new results in Asian cooperation.

By People's Daily Online

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