ASEAN nations, China urge Japan to maintain aid level

ASEAN nations, China urge Japan to maintain aid level

Ryan Nakashima, Agence France-Presse, Tokyo

Foreign ministers from East Asian nations urged Japan on Monday
to maintain the level of its strings-attached official
development assistance (ODA) despite its domestic fiscal worries.

Ministers from members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), along with South Korea and China, met in Tokyo
for a one-day meeting to review Japan's ODA program, which ties
funding to specific projects.

"At the very least, there was a strong hope expressed that
Japan maintain the (current) level of ODA," Japanese Foreign
Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told a joint press conference at the
end of the meeting.

Japan, burdened with a massive national debt, cut its initial
ODA budget by 10.3 percent to 910.6 billion yen (US$7.6 billion)
for the year to next March.

It followed a drastic drop in aid to China of 24.7 percent to
161.4 billion yen in the year to this March, but nations said
they wanted Japan to stop the cuts there.

But seeking to put Japan's financial straits in context,
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters: "Japan is
nevertheless the second largest economic power in the world."
"I hope that such kind of mutually beneficial ODA and other
undertakings between Japan and China as well as other countries
in East Asia will continue to have sound growth in the future,"
he said.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien thanked Japan for
10 years of development aid, but said the Vietnamese economy was
fragile and still in need of help.

"We are trying to make ODA more effective, more open and more
adaptable," Nguyen said. "We do hope this ODA assistance will
continue, especially for developing countries like Vietnam."

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reassured the
ministers in a statement of Tokyo's commitment to development in
the region.

"Japan remains committed to actively provide assistance to
East Asia while further efficient implementation and
prioritization of ODA will be kept in mind," he said.

In a joint statement issued at the end of the talks, ministers
said ODA "has a role to play" in alleviating "an excessive
widening of disparity among and within countries," brought on by
globalization.

It also said regional security was vital in economic growth
following the terrorist attacks of September 11 on the United
States.

Kawaguchi skirted the issue of Japan's participation in a
regional free trade area being discussed by ASEAN and China.

A framework agreement for an ASEAN-China free trade area with
an integrated market of 1.7 billion consumers is to be inked at
the ASEAN leaders' summit in Cambodia in November.

"Japan welcomes the discussion and efforts of ASEAN and China
to have a free trade agreement," Kawaguchi said, however noting
Japan was pursuing separate-track "economic partnership
agreements" outside the talks.

"We have one (bilateral agreement) with Singapore and we have
proposed this to ASEAN countries both as a whole and also
individually with those countries which are ready," she said.

The Tokyo meeting, called the Initiative for Development in
East Asia (IDEA) groups ASEAN countries plus China, South Korea
and Japan. The next meeting place and time was not determined.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.