Looking Beyond Free Trade Arrangements

Rajiv Kumar
The Financial Express
April 28, 2005

In the wake of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s historic visit, the media has been agog with discussions on the pros and cons of a free trade agreement between India and China. Similar discussions, in all likelihood by the same set of erudite pundits, will take place in anticipation of Prime Minister Koizumi’s visit. In my view, they are narrow in focus and miss the point. They should, instead, help shape India’s external economic policy in Asia on more strategic issues.

Expansion of trade, technology and investment flows will come as a natural corollary of a stronger understanding among the three countries. More important, this will provide a robust framework for greater economic dynamism across Asia and an impetus for expanded economic cooperation that could lead to the emergence of an Asian economic community—an idea supported by senior leadership from all three countries. The establishment of a special regional economic cooperation unit, earlier this month by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), underscores this idea’s strategic importance. The unit is to be headed by a former World Bank chief economist for East Asia, who has also had a stint in the powerful finance ministry in Tokyo. Pan-Asian economic cooperation seems to be a timely idea, and India should strongly support it.

Click here to read further: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=89188

Back to Top

Time to Promote intra-Asian Capital Flows

S. Balakrishnan
The Hindu Business Line
April 27, 2005

With all the financial brains around — after all Asians too have made it big on Wall Street — it should not be difficult to build adequate safety and liquidity nets to promote intra-Asian capital flows offering much better returns than US Government securities and cutting intermediation costs. Our investment needs in infrastructure, both of the physical and social kinds, are massive. There is no place like home but Asian Governments, savers and fund managers must be convinced of that. Also, among ourselves, we are bedevilled by suspicions and jealousies, leaving little scope for cooperation. All this has to change

Click here to read further: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/04/27/stories/2005042700990600.htm

Back to Top

India and the Asian Balance of Power

C. Raja Mohan
Daily Times, Pakistan
April 27, 2005

India, which welcomed the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, in New Delhi earlier this month is now getting ready to receive the Japanese prime minister, Koizumi. In order to meet the enormous challenges of domestic development, it needs good relations with all the Asian nations — including China and Japan — as well as cooperation with the United States.

Rather than emphasise balance of power in Asia, it is likely, therefore, to focus on a multi-directional engagement with all the major powers and a deeper integration with the Asian economies.

Click here to read further: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=story_25-4-2005_pg3_5&ndate=4/27/2005%204:03:00%20PM

Back to Top

Towards Greater Asian Economic Integration

Nagesh Kumar
The Financial Express
April 26, 2005

At their recent meeting in Cebu, Asean foreign ministers paved the way for India’s participation in the first East Asia Summit (EAS) to be held in Malaysia by the year end. Although India’s role in the broader (East) Asian regionalism is well-known, a few countries were trying to limit the participation to the Asean+3 countries. The Cebu meeting established a three-point criteria for participation. As India fulfills these, it can now hope to participate. EAS is likely to initiate the formation of an East Asian Community (EAC). Combining 14 eco-nomies (and possibly Australia and New Zealand), EAC can evolve into a trade bloc comparable to EU or Nafta, and become the third pole of the global economy.

Click here to read further: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=89010

Back to Top

Single Asian Currency Key to Stability

Donald Tsang
Hong Kong Information Services Website
April 23, 2005

The case for a single Asian currency, in my view, is overwhelming from the points of view of regional economic stability and growth in Asia. It is particularly critical in warding off painful ruptures of national currency systems across the region as we saw in 1997 and 1998. In this regard, I do not have rosy dreams to offer today, but only concrete and tentative steps forward.

But in Asia, we understand very well that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step

Click here to read further: http://news.gov.hk/en/category/ontherecord/050423/html/050423en11002.htm

Back to Top

Asia Marches to Drum of Economic Integration

Zhu Qiwen
China Daily
April 22, 2005

The ongoing emergence of Asia in the world economy is being fuelled to a large degree by its expanding intra-regional trade, according to the Annual Report 2005 released at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in South China's Hainan Province on Friday.

Altogether, Asian economies accounted for 38 per cent of world output in 2003.

If they maintain their relatively strong performance compared to the rest of the world at the average annual growth rates achieved during the past decade, it can be expected that all of Asia will contribute a major part to world output, the report predicted.

The report, the first of its kind, was a result of collaboration between the BFA and the World Bank.

"An interesting conclusion of the report is that free trade has become a major driving force behind economic integration in Asia," said Long Yongtu, secretary general of the BFA, at the event.

Click here to read further: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/22/content_436715.htm

Back to Top

Integration Helps Deliver Asian Dreams

China Daily
April 23, 2005

The Annual Report 2005, released yesterday at Boao Forum for Asia in South China's Hainan Province, depicts a phenomenal trend to which not only Asian nations but also the rest of the world must adapt.

More evident than ever, the economic integration is promoting the upgrading of Asia into an increasingly important player in the world economy. It is a remarkable achievement that developing Asian economies have increased their share in the world aggregate GDP from 15 per cent in 1990 to 23.8 per cent in 2003. The continent produced 38 per cent of world output that year.

More amazing is the prospect that, if the growth momentum continues, Asia as a whole will soon contribute nearly half of the world output.

Click here to read further: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/23/content_436838.htm

Back to Top

Emerging Asia Looking for Bigger Role

Xu Binglan
China Daily
April 22, 2005

In the hustle and bustle of the world stage, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India earlier this month had some special significance for geopolitics observers.

A strategic partnership between the two most populous nations, two rapidly growing economies and two of the oldest civilizations in the world is an historic issue by anyone's standards.

An amiable atmosphere has already surrounded much of East Asia and something similar is gradually brewing in South Asia.

Now a warm handshake between the two biggest countries in the region naturally leads to the anticipation of more co-operative steps.

Stretching the imagination further still, the eventual formation of Asia's answer to the European Union could be on the cards in the future.

For the moment, the partnership between China and India is not only important for the two countries, but also "adds weight to the role of the entire continent," said Zhai Kun, a senior fellow with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR).

Click here to read further: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/22/content_436493.htm

Back to Top

Japan, China Wasting Time

Keizo Nabeshima
The Japan Times
April 18, 2005

In December, an East Asian summit will be held in Malaysia. Sino-Japanese partnership is crucial if regional cooperation is to advance. Now is the time for Japanese and Chinese leaders to begin strategic dialogue on issues that will be of mutual concern a decade from now. Japan and China greeted the 30th anniversary of their diplomatic normalization in 2002. They should be enjoying mature relations, but instead face serious trouble.

Click here to read further: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20050418kn.htm

Back to Top

What is Asia?

Christian Science Monitor
April 14, 2005

Europe, Africa, and the Americas all have regular summits of their leaders. But what of Asia, home to half of humanity?

Not yet.

The region has long been divided by war, racism, and oceans. But come this December, the first summit is planned for at least 13 Asian nations. The hope is to emulate the European Union by setting up a similar, more powerful entity. But even before getting to the difficult details of economic integration, the effort has been slowed by this simple question: What is Asia?

Click here to read further: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0414/p08s01-comv.html

Back to Top

The Roar of a New Asia is on the Global Horizon

Roger Cohen
International Herald Tribune
April 13, 2005

The war on terror has obscured the fundamental strategic shift of the past decade: the emergence of China and India as rapidly growing powers that have thrown off their complexes, patched up their own relations, embarked on a buying spree and made talk of the Asian century persuasive.
.
At the same time, the nascent EAC should be inclusive. One thing about India, Australia and New Zealand is they will balance China. Another thing is that they are all democracies. The EU has served to spread democracy. Over decades, an EAC including these countries may even do the same.

Click here to read further: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/12/news/globalist.html

Back to Top

Moving Towards a Strategic Partnership

Nagesh Kumar
The Financial Express, India
April 12, 2005

China and India need to work together for broader regional economic integration in Asia, and help in making the 20th century Asia’s in reality. At the recently concluded Asean Summit in Laos, important steps were taken. Besides deepening of economic integration of Asean as a grouping, it was agreed to organise an East Asian Summit (EAS) in November 2005 in Malaysia to launch the process of broader East Asian integration. Discussions are still on, whether the participation in the EAS will be limited to Asean+3 (Japan, China and South Korea) or Asean +3+India. Clearly, there are merits in a more inclusive approach.

Click here to read further: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=87638

Back to Top

From Peace to Sino-Indian Prosperity

C. Raja Mohan
Daily Times, Pakistan
April 11. 2004

From a global perspective, India and China are in the process of more tightly linking the innermost regions of Asia to global as well as their national markets. This involves re-establishing their historical connectivity and trading routes. The interior regions of Asia — in India and China — have become remote not and because of their physical location. Once they were on the highways of international commerce. They have become inaccessible because of the border tensions between India and China. As the two countries embark on intensive economic and political cooperation, these regions can be re-connected to their natural economic environment

India will also gain access to the booming markets in southwestern China. Its connectivity to South East Asia, too, is bound to improve. More fundamentally, it will allow the development of a variety of trans-Asian rail and road networks that will benefit all the nations in the region.

Click here to read further: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_11-4-2005_pg3_5

Back to Top

China and India: Cooperation or Conflict

Harsh V Pant
The Statesman
April 11, 2005

According to observers, the global political architecture is undergoing a transformation with power increasingly shifting from the West to the East. The two most populous nations on the earth, China and India, are on their way to becoming economic powerhouses and are shedding their reticence in asserting their global profiles. Japan is gradually flexing its military muscle and the South-east Asian economies are back in business after the setbacks of the 1997 financial crisis. Whether it is such hopeful prospects or the challenges ahead in the Korean peninsula, Taiwan, and Kashmir, it is clear that this will, in all likelihood, be an Asian century.

The future will to a large extent depend on the relationship between China and India. According to the United States National Intelligence Council Report on emerging global trends, by 2020 the international community will have to confront the military, political and economic dimensions of the rise of China and India. Bilateral relations between China and India will define the contours of the new international political architecture in Asia and the world at large. This importance of their relationship is not lost on China and India. In one of his meetings with the Indian Prime Minister, the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao is reported to have remarked: “When we shake hands, the whole world will be watching”.

Click here to read further: http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid

Back to Top

Reinventing the Silk Route

M.K Venu
The Economic Times
April 4, 2005

The Chinese rarely speak their mind. But when they do, they leave very little room for ambiguity. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who is to visit India for four days starting 9 April, has made two significant statements from Beijing.

One, “there is every reason to believe that India-China relations are in the best shape in history”. And two, “a broader and deeper relationship in trade and economy between the two countries would not only serve them but also accelerate the process of ”.

The second part of the Chinese prime minister’s statement carries a far deeper message, the real import of which cannot be fully comprehended today. He could possibly be dreaming about a larger economic integration among Asian sovereign states.

Even as an idea, this could take various forms and shapes. There is little doubt that the future of trade and investment is in Asia. And this future doesn’t seem very distant.

Click here to read further: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1068739.cms

Back to Top

Asia's Financial Act

Tom Plate
The Korea Times
April 4, 2005

It is very possible that in just a few years the financial shape and structure of Asia will evolve in dramatically different ways. If handled properly, the emergence of a more tightly woven region able to work together in the face of currency and economic turbulence should prove a blessing for everyone.

Several factors are working behind the scenes to make this happen. For starters, you have the huge U.S. federal budget deficit and the correspondent weakening of the value of the American currency against many others. Swimming in a sea of denial, the Bush administration bills the weak dollar as good for U.S. exports (because they become cheap abroad) and explains away the current deficit as a temporary blip that will be soon be eviscerated by growth.

Click here to read further: http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200504/kt2005040419464054240.htm

Back to Top

Concert of Asia

Sunanda K. Datta Ray
Business Standard
April 2, 2005

China may be on the threshold of a new proposal to break the deadlock over the border dispute; Japan supports India’s case for permanent membership of the Security Council; and Japan’s ambassador in New Delhi, Yasukuni Enoki, has spoken several times of a new India-Japan-China partnership. There is also always India’s faithful friend, Singapore, to facilitate entry into the 13-member East Asian Community.

India is also seen as a counterweight to the growing economic and military power of China whose conduct across the Taiwan Straits and in the disputed Spratly Islands does not suggest much time for conciliation.

India’s expected gains are beyond dispute. Tiny Singapore’s $1.2 billion investment is already the third largest in this country, after the US and Mauritius. India is developing similar linkages with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Click here to read further: http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu5&leftindx=5&lselect=2&chklogin=N&autono=185069

Back to Top