On Dec 9, Ministerial Meeting on Trade and Economy held jointly by China, Japan and ROK in Cebu, the Philippines. Minister Bo Xilai, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan Akira Amari and Coordinator of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of ROK Kim, Chairmen of this conference, jointly reviewed achievements gained in trade and economy by the three nations since the last conference, and exchanged views on further deepening trade and economic cooperation.
The three parties agreed to start up talks on trilateral investment agreement among China, Japan and ROK, strengthen logistic distribution, energy saving and environment protection, and medium and small ventures’ cooperation. Meanwhile, they agreed to enrich cooperation in Pan-Yellow Sea region, actively participate in forum and exhibition held by each country, and agreed to keep pushing research on FTA of China, Japan and ROK.
Minister Bo said, this ministerial conference was an important mechanism for trade and economic cooperation of the three countries. Under the mechanism, the three parties reached consensus and gained positive progress in promoting trade and investment facilitation, cooperation on e-commerce and logistic distribution, and IPR protection. As the key trade and economic partner for each other, economy and trilateral trade of China, Japan and ROK constituted relatively a large proportion of world trade and economy, which should be further deepened in two-way trade, investment and cooperation, so as to reach win-win and push development of trade and economy of local area and the world.
Minister Bo put forward 5 proposals for strengthening the cooperation:
1, enhance cooperation on logistic industry and distribution;
2, strengthen energy saving and environment protection cooperation, better undertake the 2nd session of China-Japan Forum on Energy Saving and Environment Protection, invite Japan and ROK to participate in the first session of China coal expo;
3, further enrich regional cooperative mechanism in Pan-Yellow Sea area;
4, actively participate forums and exhibitions held by China. Japan and ROK;
5, enhance information exchange, perfect mechanism and expand cooperation between medium and small ventures.
Mr. Akira Amari and Mr. Kim positively evaluated achievement and significance of cooperation among the three countries, and appraised the 5 proposals put forward by China. Mr. Akira Amari said that it was necessary and had great potential of cooperation among the three countries. Cooperative system and mechanism should be set up and perfected, meanwhile cooperation on logistic distribution, hardware technology, Pan-Yellow Sea regional cooperation, and energy saving and environment protection should be comprehensively pushed.
6 sessions of such talks achieved positive progress, which made it believable to benefit for perfecting investment environment and promoting increase of mutual investment. Mr. Kim expressed that the three countries should strengthen strategic dialogue, develop closer cooperation on energy resources, so that the cooperation would create greater trade flow, broader market and more opportunities for each other. As accelerating integration of Asian economy and ever-increasing trade and mutual economic dependence of China, Japan and ROK, FTA construction of these countries should be actively pushed forward so as to bring benefit for all of them.
Minister Bo expressed that China was positive on a trilateral investment agreement among China, Japan and ROK, and believed that a balanced, practical agreement could promote mutual investment cooperation level. China was open on FTA research.
Mechanism of trade and economic ministerial conference among China, Japan and ROK starting from 2002, with the purpose of strengthening trilateral trade and economic cooperation and exchanging views on each concerned issues, had held for 4 times till now.
(Source: Network Center of MOFCOM)
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