Four Asian leaders court ASEAN at business summit

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.