Former premier Vincent Siew (
Siew made the remarks yesterday when speaking on the topic of "Regional Free Trade Arrangement and Closer Economic Cooperation in Asia" at a session of the Boao Forum for Asia.
In his speech, he said that Asian economic integration still lags well behind the EU as well as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is due to be established in 2005.
Asia, he said, is facing two challenges to forging a closer relationship. The first is that the countries of Asia are at varying levels of economic development. There are also substantial differences among them on political, social, and cultural issues.
Moreover, changes in the global economic environment have steadily intensified their economic competition with one another.
Third, the region still has a number of potential causes of instability and tension, including the rift between North and South Korea, sovereignty disputes over islands in the South China Sea, and the problems and drift toward an arms race in the Taiwan Strait.
He suggests several methods to remove the barriers to Asian economic integration in the future. Among them is to create a mechanism for dialogue that is effective, institutional and open to participation by all on a fair basis.
"Asia's existing regional organizations and forums, including ASEAN, APEC, and Boao Forum, should all respect and safeguard the equal participation and rights of all the members of the region," he said.
Siew is attending the two-day forum in his capacity as chairman of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation.
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