Be a role model of diversity and depth
China Daily  Updated: 2005-05-17 07:01

An Asian identity that is confident and creative is beginning to develop.

All nations have an interest in seeing greater political and economic integration on the continent, in seeing barriers to trade fall, and in seeing co-operation on critical issues like development and poverty alleviation.

Such a mindset has helped brew many intra-regional and inter-regional organizations aimed at promoting co-operation on all fronts.

It is hoped that this interdependence will be a powerful drive that can steer the continent towards success.

Only when Asians realize how fundamentally they rely on each other, and how much they need to continue to rely on each other in the global economy, can they come together in earnest to create a new, uniquely Asian identity.

An old presumption goes that Asia, as a continent, is composed of too many nations and too many diverse economies to be able to achieve anything together.

The challenge ahead is to turn this diversity into an engine to drive forward progress.

The latter half of the 20th century saw big changes in Asia: Some Asian countries became independent, and some have grown into world economic powers.

Asia as a whole has the fastest growing economy and accounts for a quarter of the world's exports and global gross domestic product. Our economies together represent one-third of the global economy. Our total combined international currency reserves amount to over half of the world's foreign exchange reserves.

Asia is also abundant in natural resources, from gold and spices to natural gas and petroleum. The continent is a growing market for capital goods, technology, consumer products, semi-finished goods and raw materials. The market continues to expand with improvement in income levels and growth.

Asia has great assets in terms of human resources, skills, and home-grown technical know-how. On the cultural side, Asia is characterized by great ethnic and cultural diversity. In antiquity, Asia was a land of great cultural civilizations and richness. Today, Asian cultures still shine.

All these resources, however, remain unlocked in the treasure trove. Asian nations need to make a joint effort to tap these "reserves."

Co-operation is the answer. It needs to go beyond the economic dimension to all fronts to achieve genuine integration of all countries in this diverse region stretching from the Middle East to the Pacific.

Pan-Asian co-operation is unencumbered by many thorny political issues that have restricted such efforts in the past.

More action from each nation is needed to remove the blocks so as to move towards regional integration.

Asia needs to forge a common strategy to build from our vast resources of manpower, wealth of skills, and dynamism to overcome the challenges of globalization.

Asia has been working hard towards this end. The Asia Co-operation Dialogue was inaugurated in 2000 and constitutes the missing link in Asia by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian community.

A key principle of the first-ever Asia-wide forum is to consolidate Asian strengths and sharpen Asia's competitive edge by maximizing the diversity and rich resources.

Sustainable prosperity across Asia can only be achieved with co-operation across the entire continent.

The uniqueness of each Asian entity, when combined, will become an enormous asset for Asia as a whole. Through our diversity, we are able to create great flexibility and greater strengths for one another.

(China Daily 05/17/2005 page4)

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