East Asian Leaders Reach Consensus on Economic Cooperation

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung met for a breakfast meeting in Singapore to discuss enhancing their countries' economic and trade cooperation. The leaders agreed on promoting trilateral economic and trade cooperation, establishing links between Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean enterprises, and increasing cooperation between ASEAN and China, Japan, and South Korea. They also proposed initiatives such as setting up a tripartite task force on information technology, initializing cooperation among economic research institutes, and increasing cultural exchanges between the capitals of the three countries.

Key Takeaways:

• The leaders reached a consensus on enhancing economic and trade cooperation among China, Japan, and South Korea, with a focus on promoting trilateral economic and trade cooperation.
• Premier Zhu proposed supporting trilateral economic and trade cooperation and encouraging enterprises to establish links, which was agreed upon by Prime Minister Mori and President Kim.
• The leaders agreed to set up a tripartite task force on information technology to study cooperation and provide support for ASEAN's information industry.
• The three countries proposed initiatives to increase cultural exchanges, launch a youth leadership exchange program, and establish informal summit meetings to focus on cooperation in economy, trade, science and technology, and environmental protection.
• South Korea suggested increasing cultural exchanges between the capitals of the three countries, while Japan proposed launching a program on youth leadership exchanges.
• The leaders agreed to initialize cooperation among the countries' economic research institutes to provide policy consultation and suggestions to their governments.

Statistics:

• 2002 was proposed as the personnel exchange year for China, Japan, and South Korea.
• The leaders proposed setting up a tripartite task force on information technology.
• The informal summit meetings of China, South Korea, and Japan would focus on cooperation in economy, trade, science and technology, and environmental protection.
• The meeting between the heads of state was held on the eve of the East Asian summit with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders.

Sources:

• XINHUA Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung reached a consensus here Friday on enhancing their countries' economic and trade cooperation.
• XINHUA News Agency (http://www.xinhaunet.com)