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India, Japan to sign trade deals with SE Asia
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 19:30 IST
BALI: Japan, still Asia's sole economic superpower, and tomorrow's giants China and India jostled for influence in Southeast Asia as they fleshed out plans on Wednesday for free trade agreements with the region.
Leaders of the 10-member Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) a day earlier at their annual summit endorsed a plan to transform their region into a giant free trade zone by 2020, although several urged a faster pace if they are to keep up with the rest of the world.
India and Japan are sealing agreements with ASEAN that closely resemble the one China reached with it a year ago and which set frameworks for negotiating free trade blocs that could eventually result in a huge East Asian common market.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and ASEAN leaders signed security agreements to foster trust and urge the peaceful resolution of simmering territorial disputes between several Southeast Asian countries and the north Asian giant.
"This strategic partnership is non-aligned, non-military and non-exclusive," the agreement said, adding that it aimed to give a security umbrella to faster economic growth and cooperation.
The focus of this summit is on nurturing the economic growth of a region rocked in the past few years by a financial crisis, terror attacks and the SARS virus.
Security was tight on Indonesia's tropical island of Bali where 202 people were killed a year ago in the world's deadliest terror attack since the September 11, 2001, strikes.
The failure of world trade talks in Cancun has highlighted the urgency for a trading bloc. ASEAN's relatively small economies want more influence to compete with China and at the same time already have an agreement in the works on setting up a free trade zone with the world's most populous country.
In a sign of growing investor confidence in Southeast Asia, S&P raised its credit ratings for Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia on Wednesday.
India is looking east to expand its trade, and its eagerness to counter the resurgence of China was underscored in a proposal by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Tuesday to accelerate tariff cuts to some of ASEAN's less developed members.