Scholars: ASEAN-China trade ties close, rosy
- From: Chim <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 02:08:33 -0800 (PST)
Scholars: ASEAN-China trade ties close, rosy
December 08, 2007
Scholars from China and the ASEAN said here Saturday the ASEAN-China
trade relations, which have seen remarkable improvements in recent
years, will thrive amid the future establishment of China-ASEAN Free
Trade Area (CAFTA).
With a fast-growing economy and large population, China has great
potentials for ASEAN businesspeople and investors, Denzil Abel,
representative of the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) said at an international conference starting
here on Saturday.
He predicted that the trade and economic ties of the two sides will be
broadened and deepened strongly after the CAFTA formation.
At the one-day conference entitled "ASEAN-China Trade Relations: 15
Years Development and Prospects" held by the Center for ASEAN and
China Studies under the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences, the
academy's vice president Nguyen Xuan Thang said "the CAFTA will create
a new foundation for economic and trade relations between the two
sides to thrive," given that their trade turnovers surged 20 times to
over 160 billion U.S. dollars in 2006 from nearly 8 billion dollars in
1991.
Under the CAFTA, China and the older ASEAN members -- Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- will
impose zero tariffs on most goods in 2010, and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar
and Vietnam will follow suit in 2015, Thang noted.
Li Wannan from the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies of Jinan
University in Guangzhou, China said, "China's rapid and sustainable
economic growth and deep opening of the Chinese market, which is
pushed by the accession to the World Trade Organization, will greatly
drive the increase of trade, foreign direct investment between China
and the ASEAN, as well as other cooperative fields and projects."
As a reciprocal and win-win economic arrangement, the CAFTA will
promote the clasp of bilateral and multilateral relations, she said,
noting that Chinese President Hu Jintao, during his visits to ASEAN
countries in 2005, put forth his proposal that China-ASEAN trade
should reach 200 billion dollars in 2010.
Lattana Thavonsouk from Laos' Institute of Foreign Affairs said, "With
the endeavor to build the CAFTA, it is required to accelerate the
tariff reduction process, ensure the full and efficient implementation
of the agreement on trade in goods, and press ahead with the
negotiations on the agreement on trade in services and on investment
so as to complete the building of the CAFTA on time."
Special attention must be paid to poor newer members of the ASEAN,
namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, to enable them to catch up
with the rest of the region, he stated.
Source: Xinhua
.
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