China Promotes Regional Development Cooperation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 24, 2002

China Promotes Regional Development Cooperation

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Asia should resort to both internal and external resources and tap intra-regional and global markets to fully develop their growth potential for a sustained development, Chinese Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng said Tuesday.

He made the remarks in New York at a symposium on Returning to Sustained Growth in Asia sponsored by the Asian Society.

Xiang stressed that countries in the continent should depart from its traditional growth pattern of mainly relying on demand of external markets.

Dwelling on the current situation in Asia, he said regional financial cooperation has stepped up. In May 2000, finance ministers of 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea adopted the Chiang Mai Initiative on swap arrangement.

Today, he said, the swap arrangement has been expanded to all ASEAN member countries and negotiation on bilateral currency swap and repurchase agreement within the "10+3" framework is underway and some agreements have been concluded.

The cooperation in trade and investment in Asia is also making headway, Xiang said.

ASEAN members are looking forward to establishing an ASEAN free trade zone by 2002, and China and ASEAN have decided to establish a free trade zone within 10 years. Japan also declared that it would strengthen trade cooperation with ASEAN countries.

The minister proposed that regional cooperation be pursued on a voluntary and mutually beneficial basis, taking into account the interests of all members, particularly the less developed ones.

He hoped that Asian countries will strengthen and develop links with other continents through Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and East Asia-Latin America Cooperative Forum for common development.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will offer tremendous opportunities for foreign products, particularly those from Asian neighbors, Xiang added.

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