There has been eye-catching progress in regional cooperation in East Asia.

Regional integration, an inevitable trend in the world, is led by the European Union (EU) with its common market, single currency and expanding number of members.

The North American Free Trade Area has been established in North America. Negotiations on expanding the Free Trade Area (FTA) to Central America have been concluded and negotiations on expanding the FTA to South America are also in the plans.

Other areas such as Africa and South Asia are also making great efforts to promote their own regional cooperation.

China's participation in and promotion of regional cooperation in East Asia is in its own best interests.

Geographically, East Asia consists of the five Northeast Asian nations and 10 Southeast Asian nations with a total population of 1.7 billion and US$7,000 billion in gross domestic product (calculated at the current exchange rate).

Regional cooperation in East Asia was not actually started until the outbreak of the Asia Financial Crisis in 1997.

Initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the first unofficial summit meeting between the leaders of ASEAN nations and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) was held in Malaysia on December 15, 1997, and is regarded as a new starting point in regional cooperation.

During the summit meeting held in the Philippines the following year, consensus on the principles, direction and emphasis of regional cooperation was reached and a joint statement on East Asia cooperation was also published for the first time. Since then, besides the summit meeting held annually, many ministerial meetings have also been added gradually. The "10+3" (10 ASEAN nations plus China, Japan and the ROK) mechanism has become the main channel for dialogue and cooperation between East Asian nations.

What is worth noting is that although "10+3" is only a regional dialogue mechanism, many substantial achievements have been made under its framework.

In the field of financial cooperation, a mechanism for regional currency cooperation has been set up through the Chiang Mai Agreement, which has laid the foundation for higher-level regional financial cooperation in the future development of the region.

In the field of trade and investment, although there is not yet an FTA plan covering the whole of East Asia, there have been many significant developments under the framework of regional cooperation, the first of which is the plan to establish the China-ASEAN FTA. In November 2001, the leaders of China and ASEAN reached consensus on building closer economic cooperation links and announced they would set up a FTA within 10 years, which will be the largest one in the world, in terms of population. There are also free trade plans in the works between Japan and ASEAN, between the ROK and ASEAN and between China, Japan and the ROK.

In the field of economic cooperation, one of the important areas of progress is the consensus and cooperation programs on the development of the Mekong River area under the framework of "10+3."

In addition, a lot of progress has also been made in agriculture, the development and application of new technologies and environmental cooperation.

In fact, given its political significance, what the "10+3" mechanism pushes is more than just regional economic cooperation process.

Providing a platform for countries to enhance mutual understanding and cooperation through dialogue, the "10+3" mechanism contributes to the improvement of political relations between East Asian nations.

From the viewpoint of development, all the efforts made under the mechanism will further promote more stable and intimate political cooperative relations in the region of East Asia.

The East Asia cooperation process stems from pragmatic needs. It increasingly adds new areas of cooperation, aimed at gradually establishing and perfecting an comprehensive cooperation mechanism. This is an outstanding feature of regional cooperation in East Asia.

There are, however, still some issues in East Asia cooperation that need to be resolved.

The first one is building a FTA covering the whole of East Asia by integrating the current separate processes.

Second, the "10+3" mechanism currently is a forum for cooperative dialogue between ASEAN and China, Japan and the ROK. However, in structure, it is in fact three "10+1s," since ASEAN holds dialogues with China, Japan and the ROK separately. Hence, it needs to think about how to move from the current "10+3" summit meetings to "East Asian summit meetings" and to establish some coordinating institutions.

The third one is the long-term goals of East Asia cooperation. It will take time for East Asian nations to reach consensus on long-term goals, and there is also a need for further discussion on the definition of "East Asian Community" and on what practical measures to take to promote such goals.

The East Asia cooperation process is under way, and there are many favorable conditions promoting its continuance.

First, the common benefits of cooperation have been strengthening, such as the increasingly closer economic links between East Asian nations and the growth of trade and investment within the region.

At present, trade within the region occupies more than 50 percent of the region's total trade and the growth rate of trade within the region is higher than that with areas outside the region. At the same time, there has been an obvious growth of investment within the region.

Second, the rapid progress in regional cooperation in other regions has also imposed pressure upon East Asia, which has to accelerate its pace of regional cooperation.

Of course, many difficulties do exist in pushing East Asia cooperation.

Due to insufficient understanding of the factors involved in regional cooperation, time will be needed to reach consensus on the goals of cooperation.

The reality and features of this region must be taken into consideration in East Asia cooperation.

First, the differences in this region are great. Japan is the second largest economy in the world; China is the world's most populous country and Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are the world's most under-developed nations.

Second, between the major nations, in particular between China and Japan, there exist huge differences in development, strategy, security concerns and understanding of history. Therefore, mutual trust is a very essential element in pushing forward the East Asia cooperation process. Without some kind of consensus on history and joint efforts on the part of both China and Japan, the process of East Asia cooperation will be slowed down and success will be hard to realize.

China has been playing a positive role in participating in and promoting the East Asia cooperative process. On the one hand, China has initiated promotion of regional cooperation, and on the other hand, China has seriously worked to bring about consensus among the countries of the region.

There is much work that still has to be done. Positive participation in and promotion of East Asia cooperation conforms to China's practical and long-term interests.

More importantly, not only the Chinese government but also its enterprises need to take part in and push for strengthening East Asia cooperation. Chinese enterprises must grasp this opportunity and positively cultivate external markets so as to realize the strategic goal of "going global."

(China Daily March 29, 2004)