Asia discusses cooperation; China casts long shadow

Asia discusses cooperation; China casts long shadow

Agence France-Presse, Boao, China

Businesspeople and officials meeting in the south Chinese resort
town of Boao on Saturday were discussing ways to promote economic
cooperation in Asia, but the host nation cast a long shadow.

The emergence of China as an economic power with huge regional
clout formed the background of the debate, and many remarks
dwelled on the issue of whether China should be seen as a threat,
challenge or opportunity.

China's fourth most powerful leader, Jia Qinglin, sought to
reassure the region about its voracious economy, promising that
even in 2020 imports would only make up a small proportion of its
energy consumption.

"We should be aware that China is not just a big energy
consumer, it's also major producer of energy," Jia told the Boao
Forum for Asia.

"Imports only account for a small part of China's energy
consumption ... according to our estimate, in the year 2020, the
imported energy will only account for a small proportion of all
the energy consumed by the country."

While China is not going to decrease its energy consumption, a
combination of conservation and search for additional energy
resources will keep China supplied mainly by domestic sources, he
argued.

Leading Chinese scholar Zheng Bijian struck a similar note at
the start of the talks on Friday, telling China's neighbors they
had nothing to fear.

"We will neither seek hegemony, nor claim hegemony, neither
act as a leader nor become a vassal," said Zheng, chairman of
think tank China Reform Forum.

While the Boao Forum for Asia is being touted as a non-
governmental event, it is widely believed that the Chinese
leadership hopes it will evolve into a regional counterpart of
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Adding to the argument that China was more of an opportunity
for the region, the Boao forum issued a report suggesting that
the opening of its economy had been overwhelmingly beneficial for
the region.

In fact, China's economic reforms had done more to boost
intra-regional trade than the efforts of regional organizations
such as the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, according to
the report, Economic Integration in Asia.

Hong Kong's caretaker leader Donald Tsang on Saturday said
there was an "overwhelming" case for a single Asian currency, but
that the objective had to be attained in a step-by-step manner.

"The case for a single Asian currency is overwhelming," he
told the Boao gathering, but added: "We must learn to walk before
we can run."

He pointed out that the vast diversity of the Asian economies
made it an extremely difficult task to bring about a single
currency in the region.

"We must create the conditions for greater free trade in
financial services before we can even begin to talk about
monetary integration," he said.

He urged Asian governments to remove hurdles to increased
trade in financial services as a first step towards the eventual
objective of a single currency in Asia.