Arc of Advantage for Asian Economies

New Delhi, November 12: India will work together closely with neighbours to create a strong, vibrant Asian Economic Community to ensure that 21srt century is the Asian Century, asserted Union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here on Monday. Inaugurating the two-day Sixth High Level Conference on Asian Economic Integration – Agenda for East Asia organized jointly by the Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries (RIS), the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore and Japanese institute IDE-JETRO, the minister hoped that the congregation would come out with a concrete roadmap for Asian economic integration.

“It is incumbent on us to put in place a political and economic architecture which is conducive to Asia’s emergence as a pre-eminent region of stability and prosperity,” Mukherjee said addressing the congregation of academicians, economists, researchers, thinkers and social scientists from the different Asian countries who attended the conference.

Digging deep into history and quoting Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru liberally, Mr Mukherjee said “Strong winds are blowing all over Asia. Let us not be afraid of them, but rather welcome them; for only with their help can we build the new Asia of our dreams.” India constantly seeks closer and wider engagement with her Asian neighbours and is willing to work with them to realize the aspirations and dreams that Pandit Nehru spoke of.Let us therefore work together to make the 21st century truly the Asian century,” Mukherjee said.

The minister referred to the recent studies by the RIS, a think tank constituted by the Union Government, to show that the economic integration within the East Asian community has the potential to generate billions of dollars of new output and thus serve as the engine of growth for the continent and the world economy. He complimented the RIS for holding the conference just days before the all important East Asia summit, scheduled to be held in Singapore next week where Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will be among the other important Asian leaders to deliberate on Asian economic integration. India’s Look East policy, the minister said has strong economic rationale as East Asia has emerged as India’s largest trading partner, ahead of European Union and the United States of America.

“It will take a lot of time, energy and perseverance to translate dreams into reality, But we should at least start thinking about the ideas and develop the roadmap for the realization. An important development in the direction of building a cooperative architecture in Asia in the East Asia Summit to be held in Singapore next month, with the participiation of ASEAN, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. This summit could provide an important platform for initiating the process of creation of an East Asian Community. Such a community could be an important step in the direction of creation of an Arc of Advantage and prosperity,” Mr Mukherjee added.

Earlier, several distinguished delegates made lively presentations on the how to aspects of Asian economic integration with the suggestions ranging from policy level changes to more cultural, social and educational exchanges.

In his presentation, Broader Asian Economic Integration, Dr Nagesh Kumar, director general, RIS, outlined the whole thought, philosophy and rationale behind the idea of Asian Economic Integration and expressed the happiness that today the sub-prime crisis that has the US economy in its grip can hardly impact any other economy as it no longer was the locomotive of World economic growth. In fact, Asia has become the new centre of gravity of global economic activity, Dr Nagesh Kumar said.

Stressing the need for forging an overreaching pan-Asian economic grouping, the RIS director general said the gains for all the member countries will be immense, as estimated by the Asian Development Bank and other global research bodies. It is here that the dynamism of the Indian economy will help India as it has already integrated itself with East Asia. Among the areas of cooperation between the Asian countries are the fields of finance, energy, science an technology, disaster management, institution building and global economic governance, he said.

Asian Development Bank deputy director general, Manila, Dr Sultan Rahman Hafeez, forecast that Asian countries will continue to post robust growth in his presentation entitiled Asian Cooperation and Asia’s new role in global economy. In the next 10 years half of the world’s output will be contributed by the Asian countries as also the world’s exports. He also listed out the various steps taken by the ADB to help economic integration in the region – transport connectivity, finance cooperation and energy cooperation. He also mentioned a few major power projects that serve two or three countries and how power was also being exported between member countries.

Union Commerce Secretary Mr Gopal Pillai, who chaired a technical session on Asia and the global economy, suggested that school education ought to be modified to incorporate East Asian studies. For long term economic integration, he said, knowledge about each other would be of immense use and cultural exchanges will also make their own helpful contribution.

Among the others who made presentations included Special Advisor to IDE president on ERIA/IDE/Tokyo (an economic research institute of Japan), Hidetoshi Nishimura, who elaborated on the key role research played in economic development. The two-day conference is divided into six technical sessions, which will come out with suggestions for the governments of the member countries to deliberate and act upon.

For any additional information or clarifications please contact:

Dr Ram Upendra Das
Fellow, RIS
India Habitat Centre, New Delhi
upendra900@gmail.com

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