Center
Officials call for more cooperation
Updated: 2006-06-08 09:52
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Trade officials from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) say ASEAN and the Pan Pearl River Delta Region should cooperate more to achieve a sustainable growth and common prosperity in regional economic and social development.
At a meeting held on Tuesday between administrative leaders of the Pan Pearl River Delta Region and ASEAN trade officials, Somkid Jatusripitak, deputy prime minister of Thailand, said ASEAN and the Pan Pearl River Delta Region could achieve rapid development through cooperation.
He proposed the staging of an annual forum on cooperation between the Pan Pearl River Delta Region and ASEAN and the building of an exchange network between the two regions.
Sugi Haryu, chief of the department for state-owned enterprises in Indonesia, promised Indonesia would step up cooperation with China in fields ranging from pharmaceuticals to textiles.
Greater efforts should be made to increase mutual investments and to tap potential for cooperation, said the Indonesian official.
Brig-Gen Aung Tun, deputy commerce minister of Myanmar, said they need to know more about Pan Pearl River Delta Region's policies on investment and trade to advance economic and trade cooperation with the vast Chinese region.
Siaosauath Savengsuksa, deputy trade minister of the Laos, said there was a great potential for Chinese and Laotian companies to cooperate in fields such as energy.
The Laotian government has worked out a range of preferential policies to encourage economic and trade cooperation with China.
Pan Pearl River Delta Region consists of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as well as Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, which have one fifth of the country's territory, and one third of China's population.
China has proposed the establishment of a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and relevant negotiations are expected to be finished before the end of the year.
The nine Chinese mainland areas of Pan Pearl River Delta Region did 46.24 billion U.S. dollars worth of trade with ASEAN --- namely Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines -- last year, a rise of 14 percent.
In accordance with an agreement concerning Sino-ASEAN Preferential Treatment, tariffs totaling 59.93 million U.S. dollars were exempted from levy over 516 million U.S. dollars worth of commodities imported from ASEAN last year.