China Confident in FTA Plan, ASEAN Partnership

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 29, 2002

China Confident in FTA Plan, ASEAN Partnership

China and ASEAN are working for new cooperative relation, indicating a brilliant future of China-Asean cooperation in the new century, China's chief WTO negotiator Long Yongtu said Thursday.

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A Chinese senior official said Thursday China and ASEAN are working for new cooperative relation, indicating a brilliant future of China-Asean cooperation in the new century.

Addressing the China-Asean Partnership Forum Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, Long Yongtu, Vice-Minister of the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the new impetus are injected to strengthen in-depth cooperation between both sides.

Leaders of China and ASEAN reached consensus on strengthening cooperation in the new century in November last year and negotiations on the establishment of China-Asean Free Trade Area (CAFTA) have been formally initiated and progress has been made, Long said.

He said the establishment of CAFTA is a wise policy choice under the circumstances of economic globalization and regional economic integration.

Huge Market for ASEAN

China should not be merely viewed as a competitor but more importantly as a potentially huge market for the ASEAN countries, a Malaysian official said Thursday.

Opening the China-ASEAN Partnership Forum, deputy minister of international trade and industry Kerk Choo Ting said as the 4th largest trading partner of ASEAN, China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) brings new opportunities for their bilateral trade.

Kerk said their economic relations have grown dramatically over the last decade with an average annual trade growth of 20.4 percent. There is still enormous potential for further expansion of trade and investment links between both sides.

The proposed establishment of Asean-China Free Trade Area within 10 years will allow ASEAN counters to make early inroads into the Chinese market through preferential duties and it will also lead to greater specialization in production based on comparative advantage, thus attracting more investment inflows into the region, he said.

The forum, which will last two days, is attended by some 600 people from China and the ten ASEAN countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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