Four Asian leaders court ASEAN at business summit

Despite lingering security and economic problems in the Asian region, four leaders of ASEAN's key trading partner countries voiced optimism about the prospects of the region's economy and vowed to intensify economic cooperation with ASEAN countries.

The four leaders to speak on Wednesday on the last day of the first ASEAN Business and Investment Summit are South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun, China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The following are excerpts of their speeches.

Korea keen to set up FTA with ASEAN

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said his country was keen to create a Free Trade Area (FTA) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries in a bid to boost trade and investment activities between the two regions.

He also stressed that the military crisis on the Korean Peninsula should not become a roadblock toward increasing economic cooperation between ASEAN and Korea.

"Military tension and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula cannot but be an obstacle to the stability and prosperity of all of East Asia," Roh said.

"A peaceful solution to the nuclear issue and a viable inter- Korean peace system are essential for peace and prosperity in East Asia. The North Korean nuclear issue should be resolved quickly. And it must be resolved peacefully," he said, adding that the current and upcoming talks hopefully would open the road to a peaceful solution.

Roh is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with ASEAN's 10 leaders who are gathering here for a two-day annual summit. In these meetings, he will discuss measures for cooperation with ASEAN, including his vision on pursuing a Korea-ASEAN FTA.

He said that consultation between ASEAN and Korean economic ministers and officials would be instituted as regular forums beginning next year.

Japan urges continuing economic reform

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said that ASEAN countries must press ahead with economic reform to boost the region's attractiveness as an investment destination.

"The (late 1990s) economic crisis made us keenly aware that East Asia needs strong economic systems which would enjoy confidence of investors and consumers in the world."

Koizumi said that the legal system in the area of antimonopoly, the protection of intellectual property rights and the transparency of the procurement system have to be improved so that the region will become a better place to carry out business activities.

"By developing its economic systems, ASEAN can continue to be an attractive investment destination for foreign corporations," Koizumi said.

Japan is one of the region's largest sources of investments and trading partners. It is also one of the main creditors in the region. Trade between ASEAN and Japan reaches US$100 billion annually. Accumulated amount of direct investment from Japan to ASEAN exceeds $100 billion.

Koizumi said that economic cooperation in the East Asia region should be fortified as it was still below its potential. He pointed out that ASEAN, Japan, China and South Korea were home to approximately one-third of the world's population and account for about one-fifth of both the world's nominal gross domestic product and total trade volume, but compared to the dynamism in North America through NAFTA and Europe via the EU, the Asia region lags behind in terms of regional cooperation and is not fully exercising its potential as a region.

China pledges to become a good partner

China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said that China and ASEAN were embarking on a new stage in both economic, business, political and security issues.

The Chinese leader also said that China, like other Asian countries, under the present world circumstances, was faced with a serious challenge due to unfair business competition.

"We are all under the competition pressure brought about by the unfair and irrational economic order," he exclaimed.

In another part of his speech, Jiabao pledged to become a good ASEAN neighbor and partner.

China and ASEAN officially launched negotiations on establishing a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2002. The two sides signed the Framework Agreement on the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

"This shows that China's relation with ASEAN is embarking on a new stage," the prime minister asserted.

China and ASEAN are important trading partners. Bilateral trade volume has grown by more than six times over the past 10 years amounting to US$54.77 billion in 2002. For the first half of this year, bilateral trade volume grew by 55.5 percent to $34.24 billion.

India seeks closer economic relations

India's Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee strongly urged ASEAN to boost economic and business cooperation as India's trade and economic interaction with ASEAN countries has been steadily growing, but not fast enough.

In 2002, economic ministers from ASEAN and India agreed to set up a Free Trade Area (FTA) within 10 years.

Vajpayee said that while ASEAN had well-developed and diverse economic relations with China, Japan and South Korea, India had lagged behind for a variety of political and economic reasons.

Last year, during the first India-ASEAN business summit, trade between the two countries was less than US$10 billion.

"That does not do justice to our combined population of one and a half billion people, producing a trillion and a half dollars worth of goods and services annually," said the prime minister.

"We are working on eliminating trade and investment barriers to facilitate business," he said.

At the same time, he added, India is conscious of the concerns of the new ASEAN members. "We are offering unilateral tariff concessions on items of export interest to the CLMV countries," he said, referring to new ASEAN members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.