Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung,
Dear colleagues,
The ASEAN Plus Three (10+3) cooperation has travelled an extraordinary journey and registered great progress. It has become our common asset. We meet at a time when profound and complex changes are taking place in East Asia and the overall international landscape. We should treasure our hard-won achievements and further push forward the 10+3 cooperation. I hope that this meeting will be one of solidarity, cooperation and progress.
The 10+3 cooperation, launched amidst the Asian financial crisis, has played an important role in meeting the recent severe global financial crisis and shown strong vitality. We have not only upheld financial stability in East Asia, but also achieved the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) Multilateralization and set up the 120 billion US dollar self-managed foreign exchange reserve pool and the 700 million dollar regional Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility (CGIF). Together, we have opposed trade protectionism, harnessed our strengths in population, resources and markets, expanded intra-regional trade and investment and minimized the shock of the global financial crisis to our region. China, the ROK and Japan have each established the free trade area with ASEAN and the joint study on China-Japan-ROK FTA involving the government, industry and academia has been launched. The East Asian economic integration has made important progress. Facts have shown that the 10+3 cooperation has emerged from the severe tests stronger and its status as the main vehicle of East Asian cooperation has been further enhanced. It has become the symbol of solidarity and common prosperity of East Asian countries.
Today, the East Asian economies have become the first to achieve a recovery. They have shown robust growth momentum and acted as an important growth engine of the world economy. The 10+3 region is home to one third of the world population, its combined GDP accounts for nearly 20 percent of the global GDP and its trade takes up 31 percent of the world's total. Over half of East Asian trade comes from within the region. Trade interdependence and free flow of factors of production between the East Asian countries have visibly increased. There are now favorable conditions for the sustained, in-depth and fast growth of 10+3 business cooperation. Moreover, the mechanisms for 10+3 exchanges and cooperation in agriculture, food security, tackling climate change, non-traditional security issues and culture have been further improved. East Asian cooperation is moving to an even higher level.
At the same time, we must recognize that global competition today is getting stiffer and the international situation has become more complex. Our region is still confronted with some destabilizing factors, and problems such as development imbalances, high level of external dependence and unreasonable elements in the economic structure have yet to be fundamentally resolved. At this critical juncture, we must stay committed to East Asian cooperation. We must not waver in our confidence or slacken our efforts. We must seize opportunities, take on challenges together, remove disruptions and push our cooperation forward.
China suggests that we enhance our cooperation in the following priority areas in keeping with the objectives set out in the Second Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation:
First, speed up the building of the East Asia FTA. This will help shore up confidence and cement the momentum of regional economic growth. It is also of strategic significance to raising the economic competitiveness of the region as a whole and sustaining the dynamism of growth. We should strengthen coordination and cooperation, stick to the 10+3 as the main vehicle of cooperation and advance the FTA building. We should fully respect the centrality of ASEAN and follow the principle of building consensus through consultation. We should take a step-by-step approach, starting from easier tasks before moving on to tougher ones. And we should be open and inclusive, and accommodate each other's concerns.
China, as the lead sherpa of the 10+3 business cooperation, has put forward the roadmap for 10+3 trade facilitation whose focus is to intensify 10+3 cooperation in trade facilitation within the next five years. China will consult with other parties and propose specific measures to further advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation within the region. Here, I would like to announce that China will contribute another one million US dollars to the APT Cooperation Fund, and we hope the money will be used to facilitate the building of the East Asia FTA.
With the China-ASEAN, Japan-ASEAN and ROK-ASEAN FTAs in place, the building of the China-Japan-ROK FTA should move faster. The three countries have decided to sign the tripartite investment agreement as soon as possible, and set the objective of concluding the joint FTA study involving the government, industry and academia by 2012. We should offer stronger political support, face up to challenges, build up confidence and take an active and practical approach to push the relevant work forward at a faster pace.
Second, deepen financial cooperation. The entry into force of the agreement on CMI Multilateralization has boosted the confidence of East Asian countries in tackling the financial crisis. It also helps improve the global financial safety net and global economic governance structure. We should make the CMI Multilateralization more effective and improve its operation procedures. At the same time, we need to step up exchanges and coordination on macro-economic policies, and strengthen and improve the regional economic monitoring mechanism.
We should continue to build the Asian Bond Market, make good use of the Credit Guarantee Investment Facility and facilitate the issuance of local currency-denominated bonds. We should also discuss ways to encourage cross-border bond transaction and settlement in our region and strengthen the capacity-building for the development of the bond market.
We should think for the long term and conduct forward-looking and strategic studies on how to deepen the 10+3 financial cooperation and identify future cooperation priorities in the light of the evolution of the situation, in order to provide stronger support for regional trade and investment liberalization and economic integration.
Third, advance cooperation in other fields. China stands ready to work with all parties to build the APT Emergency Rice Reserve. I would like to announce that China will donate one million US dollars to the reserve on top of the 300,000 tons of rice it pledged last year. China will continue to host the APT Roundtable on Food Security Cooperation Strategy and explore with other countries the ways for cooperation on sustainable agricultural production in the region.
To boost regional economic development, China is willing to join ASEAN, Japan and the ROK in an effort to support the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity and advance the construction of roads, railways, shipping routes, ports and other facilities in this region.
China supports the establishment of an APT education ministers' meeting mechanism to boost cooperation in education. China will host the Ninth East Asia Forum in 2011 and discuss with other 10+3 countries ways to push forward regional cooperation.
Fourth, intensify communication and coordination on major international issues. The Seoul summit will be the first G20 summit held in an Asian country. China appreciates the ROK's decision to make development a major item on the agenda of the summit. We hope that the summit will fully demonstrate the experience gained in the course of East Asian cooperation, and produce positive outcomes in promoting world economic recovery and growth, reform of the international financial institutions, international financial supervision and regulation and opposing trade protectionism.
Climate change impacts profoundly the survival and development of 10+3 countries, and this challenge should be jointly met under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. We should further enhance dialogue and cooperation, earnestly promote the full, effective and sustained implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, call on the developed countries to honor their commitment of providing financial and technological support to developing countries, and push for positive outcomes at the Cancun conference. We also need to strengthen coordination and work for the success of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting soon to be held in Yokohama.
Dear colleagues,
Stronger 10+3 cooperation is essential to the revitalization of East Asia. For the sake of our common interests, we must take on this historic mission and fulfill it with tireless effort.