Economy

China, Japan, South Korea 'closely linked in trade'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-19 13:13

NARA - Former Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said Monday that China, Japan and South Korea are " mutually complementary in economy and closely linked in trade."

"The considerable disparity in their resources, technological levels and labor costs highlights enterprises' comparative advantages and is conducive to transnational investments and trade, " said Zeng in his keynote speech at the fifth session of the Northeast Asia Trilateral Forum.

"Japan and South Korea are more advanced than China in economic development, and have accumulated much experience in achieving economic transformation, dealing with the relation of development and environment and tackling international trade frictions, from which China could draw lessons and benefit," he said at the one- day forum taking place in the ancient Japanese city of Nara.

There thus exists great potential as well as a broad prospect for their future practical cooperation among the three nations, said Zeng.

The three need to continuously substantialize the content of their partnership, infuse new elements in their cooperation and improve their communication and coordination from trilateral, regional and global aspect, he said.

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In his keynote speech, former Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro said that Japan, China and South Korea should further prompt their cooperation and make their voice more clearly heard on the world stage in a bid to safeguard the stability of Asia as well as that of the world at large.

The three need to set as their long-term aim the establishment of a regional cooperative mechanism in areas of East Asia's politics and security, economy and culture, and jointly play a leading role to that end.

Former South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hong-koo, for his part, said that faced with problems such as the security and stability of global financial markets, trade liberalization, climate change and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, it draws worldwide attention how the three nations coordinate with each other to adopt a unanimous stance.

Zeng arrived here Saturday to attend the fifth session of the Northeast Asia Trilateral Forum that opened earlier Monday.

The trilateral gathering drew 29 former high-ranking officials and prominent figures from political, academic and business circles of China, Japan and South Korea.

The forum, cosponsored by China's Xinhua News Agency, Japan's Nikkei news group and South Korea's leading daily newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, aims to strengthen non-governmental exchanges among the three nations.

The yearly event has been held alternately in the three countries since 2006.