China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose "multifaceted cooperation has been the best over the past 15 years," have favorable conditions to "develop their cooperative ties in a deep, stable and sustainable manner," a Vietnamese scholar said Tuesday.
"ASEAN is accelerating its linkage process. During this process, let's regard increasingly closer cooperation between ASEAN and China, and China's activeness in beefing up relations with the block as a propulsive force or a catalyst of the process of constructing the ASEAN Community," said Asso. Prof. Dr. Do Tien Sam at Vietnam's Institute for Chinese Studies.
The prospect of China-ASEAN ties in the coming time is rosy. The promising prospect of China-ASEAN relations are based on their "enhanced political trust which has laid foundation for their cooperation in economy and other fields," he said.
"The construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is the clearest manifestation of their political and economic ties because this is the political determination of leaders," he said, noting that the construction has gained substantial results via such projects as the Early Harvest Program.
As a result, bilateral trade has increased rapidly: from 859 million U.S. dollars in 1978 to nearly 8 billion dollars in 1991 and 160.8 billion dollars in 2006. The two-way trade is expected to stand at 190 billion dollars in 2007.
Chinese investors had had total investment of 150 million dollars in ASEAN by the end of 1991 and of nearly 1.1 billion dollars by the end of 2005. By late 2005, ASEAN had total investment of 38.5 billion dollars in China.
China and ASEAN have defined 10 major cooperation fields, including agriculture, manpower development, the Mekong River exploitation, transport, energy, culture and tourism, he said. They have also strengthened coordination and cooperation in regional and international affairs.
The multifaceted cooperation between China and ASEAN over the past 15 years is fine thanks to their joint efforts, he said, adding that in his opinion "China's activeness is the most important factor" in the fine cooperation.
To bring the cooperation into play, ASEAN should speed up the internal linkage process so that it will become a united entity, he said, adding that powerful countries need ASEAN and even support its key role in the East Asia linkage process.
"Only by linking together as a united entity, can ASEAN promoteits role and status in the relation with China and other big partners," he said.
ASEAN will turn 40 on Aug. 8, 2007. Its 10 members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
