Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced in Kunming on Tuesday that China will individually give preferential tariff treatment to more products from three of its southeast Asian neighbors, marking another concrete step taken by the country to cement ties with neighours.

"Wen's announcement shows that China is taking an active approach to push forward trade facilitation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)," commented Rajat M. Nag, director general of Mekong Department with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

"It also shows that China is to help the neighboring nations make economic progress," he said.

At the Second GMS Summit held in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Wen said that the Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar will enjoy the promised preferential treatment as of Jan. 1, 2006, but did not give details.

Since 2002, China has cut or exempted tariffs for 600 items of products from the three afore-mentioned relatively underdeveloped GMS countries.

"This is another strategic step taken by China to bolster relations with its neighbours and seek common prosperity," said Yang Xianming, a professor with the Kunming-based Yunnan University.

By helping the three countries grow stronger economically, China will also be able to enhance economic and political relations with other GMS countries, including Vietnam and Thailand, he said.

China on Tuesday signed a number of cooperative documents with the

other five GMS countries in such areas as transportation, animal epidemics prevention, information superhighway construction and power trade.

"This indicates that China's cooperation with other GMS countries has become more pragmatic, which will lead to stronger economic and political ties," said He Shengda, deputy dean of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences.

He pointed out economic prosperity will contribute to peace and stability in the region, long-haunted by poverty and drugs, thus providing a good climate for China's ongoing modernization drive.

Initiated by the ADB in 1992, the GMS program aims to promote economic and social development through reinforcing economic links between the six member countries.

To date, the project-oriented mechanism has launched 119 cooperative projects in fields like traffic, energy and telecommunication, pooling

some 5.3 billion US dollars of capital.

China has funded several key transportation projects and helped train over 500 personnel for other GMS countries. It has also set up a special fund of 20 million US dollars under the ADB for human resources development and poverty alleviation among Asian developing nations.

Sitting next to each other along the Lancang-Mekong River, the six GMS partners have been suffering from a host of social problems like drug, human trafficking and spread of epidemics.

"Poverty is the root cause of the problems prevailing in the region, whose economic and social development has lagged behind the world level," said Nag.

At the Tuesday summit, Wen put forward seven recommendations for stronger GMS cooperation, including stepping up infrastructure building, which is badly needed in the region, and deepening agricultural cooperation in a region where 70 percent of the population are engaged in farming.

"The seven pragmatic proposals which fix an eye in the future impress me most," said Jukr Boon-Long from the Foreign Ministry of Thailand.

China plays an important role in promoting economic growth in the GMS, as it has rich human resources, a huge market and booming economy, said Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, deputy secretary-general of Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Board.

"We expect more fruitful achievements in GMS cooperation with China's active and pragmatic participation," he said.

Source: Xinhua