EAEG: Acronym for regional prosperity

EAEG: Acronym for regional prosperity

The peace dividend is the imperative driving the Prime
Minister, again, to persuade East Asian nations -- this time in
Tokyo -- to adopt the East Asian Economic Grouping (EAEG). Why?
As he points out, Europe has had a half century of peace because
of the European Economic Community, now renamed simply the
European Community (EC). And, with peace comes prosperity.

A regional organization has become somewhat urgent for East
Asia as the region moves rapidly into what is an historical
period not unlike that experienced by modern Europe in its
economic infancy where the struggle for market dominance ran
along traditional fault lines. The same potential exists here as
the number of newly industrializing economies increases.

China's size, for instance, brings with it the kind of
overwhelming potential that may not bode well for smaller
nations. Despite its pacifist history and its recent support of
Southeast Asia during the financial crisis, the so-called "yellow
peril" can be more than mere rhetoric should ideas of regional
hegemony become fashionable in Beijing. Therefore, it would be
politic to have China within the group, thus pre-empting such a
possibility.

Economically, China promises to be nothing if not a regional
engine of growth. The reforms started by Chairman Deng Xiaoping
are proving to be a very sound platform for economic development,
which in turn will make for rapid economic modernization
resulting in the creation of a market that will far outstrip that
of the United States. Working together as part of an economic
caucus, East Asia then could easily become an economic powerhouse
given the presence, too, of the world's second largest economy,
Japan.

Peace would indeed create a formidable regional prosperity. If
pre-financial crisis ASEAN is anything to go by, where prosper-
thy-neighbor is a maxim elevated almost into a mantra, where
political engagement takes precedence over all else, an East
Asian caucus that encompasses large swathes of natural resources
and an incredible talent pool holds a future of unimaginable
riches. It is no wonder that the EAEG is a non-starter in certain
quarters.

-- New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur