Chinese economic integration
Hyun Oh-seok, President, Trade Research Institute,
Korea International Trade Association, JoongAng Daily
October 14, 2005

The economic integration of the entire Chinese economic region is being realized. A general opinion to date has been that this region, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao residents and the Chinese emigrants across the world, could not make progress toward a phase of official and practical integration yet. But as Chinese people around the world accelerate "growth through integration," the Chinese economic region is moving toward a new phase of integration.

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<http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200510/13/200510132136548339900090109012.html>

Tokyo lacking community spirit
By Axel Berkofsky, Senior Policy Analyst, European Policy Centre
Asia Times
Oct 5, 2005

Officially, Japan wants a leadership role in the yet-to-be-born East Asian Community (EAC). Yet the reverse could be true, with US-allied Tokyo possibly playing a pivotal part in seeing that the grouping never even sees the light of day.

With two months to go before the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand meet in Kuala Lumpur for an East Asian summit, they have yet to agree on an agenda for the meeting, which is aimed at laying the foundations for the EAC.

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<http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/GJ05Dh04.html>

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China, Japan tug-of-war over Indochina
By Hisane Masaki ,
Tokyo-based journalist, commentator and scholar on international politics and economy.
Asia Times
Oct 5, 2005

Moves between Japan and China over the development of the Mekong River basin show signs of intensifying as Tokyo is trying to regain some ground lost in recent years to Beijing in the economic backwater of East Asia.

Japan inaugurated a regular economic ministerial meeting with four countries in the Mekong region - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, or CLMV countries as they are often called collectively - in the Laos capital Vientiane at the end of last month.

At the inaugural ministerial meeting, Japan and the CLMV nations agreed on a package of new Japanese assistance programs for the development of the Mekong region, which include cooperation in building a production and distribution network across the region and facilitating intra-regional trade through the use of IC tags (a digital medium that uses radio frequency identification).

Click here to read further : <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/GJ05Dh03.html>

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