Asia-Europe meeting gears up in Berlin

Asia-Europe meeting gears up in Berlin

BERLIN (AFP): Economy ministers and experts from the European Union and east Asian countries will meet for two days under German auspices this weekend to help guide the Asian economies out of recession and strengthen economic cooperation and trade.

Some 500 participants from the 15 EU countries and Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam are expected for this second Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), the German economy and technology ministry said.

The Berlin talks will be aimed at further economic reforms of the Asian economy and the search for markets there, and the prevention of a fall back into recession and contagious economic crisis after the near collapses of 1997-8, German government sources indicated.

The Asian countries want financial help and advice from the Europeans, while the western representatives will seek security for their investments in the region.

Central to the meeting will be how to intensify Asia-Europe economic cooperation in the light of signs of a new economic upturn in east Asia, the German ministry said.

Discussions will be held on the basis of a report from a recently-ended meeting in Seoul of the Asia-Europe Business Forum on how cooperation between the two continents can be strengthened at the level of economic ministries and between business leaders, a ministry document said.

The ministers will examine the infrastructure sector, and in particular how private capital can be employed with regard to infrastructure projects, it said.

The second ASEM is also expected to deal with preparations for the World Trade Organization ministerial conference, scheduled for Seattle at the end of November and beginning of December, and the opening of a new round of trade liberalization negotiations.

ASEM member governments are all in favor of universal membership of the WTO, and the ministers are accordingly expected to discuss in Berlin the prospect of membership in the near future for China and Vietnam, the German document states. China's demand to be admitted is expected to receive at least a boost in Berlin.

However, German government sources warned that the world's most populous country could not hope to win a promise of support for special conditions for membership of the WTO.

The Berlin talks will be led by the German economy minister Werner Mueller, a technocrat and former businessmen without political affiliation.

The ASEM ministerial meeting follows the first one held in Makuhari near Tokyo on September 27-28 1997, but its roots go back to a summit meeting between the European Union states and east Asian countries in March 1996 in Bangkok.