China attaches importance to the economic cooperation among the 10-member ASEAN and its three dialogue partners -- China, Japan and South Korea, and is ready to promote such cooperation for the regional prosperity, Chinese vice commerce minister Yu Guangzhou said Thursday in Vientiane.

China treasures the economic and trade cooperation with members of ASEAN+3 on the basic principles of equal consultation, win-win relation, gradual development, openness and harmonization, Yu said after the 8th AEM (ASEAN Economic Ministers) Plus 3 Consultation and Consultation with the East Asia Business Council (EABC).

"China is ready to further promote the economic cooperation of East Asia and contribute to the regional economic development and common prosperity of East Asian countries," he said.

According to Yu, China put forth at the meeting a new cooperative project titled "A Seminar for Senior International Engineering Project Management for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Countries," which has won support from other delegates.

China has actively initiated joint projects, including ones on practical technical training, environmental protection and e- commerce training, he said, adding the country is also taking the lead in the Joint Expert Group of feasibility study on the East Asia Free Trade Area (EAFTA).

Recognizing the necessity of the region's better response to soaring oil price and oil supply disruption, the ministers during the consultation suggested cooperation on a range of issues, including energy efficiency and conservation, diversification of energy supply and use of alternative and renewable energy, effective and clean use of resources, oil stockpiling system development and energy-related statistics development.

During the consultation, the ministers also discussed major issues of the establishment of EAFTA, including the liberalization of different kinds of goods and services, South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said, adding senior economic officials will gather in Vietnam's Hanoi next month for further discussions.

The ministers reiterated the importance of continuing regional economic integration as a means to beef up trade and investment flows. The trade volume among ASEAN+3 surged to 258.2 billion US dollars in 2004 from 206.5 billion dollars in 2003.

Source: Xinhua