ASEM calls for more regional trade

ASEM calls for more regional trade

Joseph Coleman, Associated Press, Hanoi

Asian and European business leaders at a joint forum pushed
for greater trade between their regions on Thursday, with Asians
calling for more transfer of technology to their countries and
Europeans demanding greater Asian investment.

Speakers at the opening of the Asia-Europe Business Forum IX,
held on the sidelines of the fifth Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM,
praised the burgeoning trade flows between the two regions, home
to some of the world's biggest corporations and its fastest
growing economies.

ASEM, with the scheduled addition of 13 members on Thursday,
will comprise a market of 2.7 billion consumers, making up 46
percent of world gross domestic products and 43 percent of its
trade volume, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan told
delegates.

Still, he said much more remains to be done.

"Today, Asia and Europe are key trade and investment partners
of each other," Khoan told delegates. "However, the scope of
cooperation matches neither the potentials of the two continents
nor the needs of the new situation."

Asian delegates focused on urging European companies to step
up transfers of technology to Asian countries and corporations to
boost productivity and redress the vast gap in development
between the two regions.

Yu Ping, vice chairman of the China Council for Promotion of
International Trade, said Chinese companies were also keenly
interested in intensifying joint research and development with
Europeans.

He also called for freer trade between the two regions.

"Chinese business circles at present are especially concerned
about how and when the barriers and obstacles to trade imposed by
the developed countries on the developing countries could be
reduced and removed," he said.

The Europeans, however, said the two sides should also address
the serious imbalances in the direction of trade and investment
between the two regions.

For instance, the quantity of Asian goods being sold in Europe
dwarfs the amount of European goods being sold in Asia, said
Jacques Gravereau, president of France's HEC Eurasia Institute.

The European Union buys an average of US$285 billion in Asian
goods a year, but the EU makes only $160 billion in sales in
Asia, and the growth of EU sales in Asia is much lower than in
other parts of the world, he said.

Others called for more Asian investment in Europe.

"We in Europe are in favor of cross-border investment, but
cross-border investment is not a one-way street," said Gert Vogt,
the head of the German delegation, urging Asian companies to
invest and set up production facilities in Europe.