East Asia pledges to promote economic cooperation, integration
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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda said?in Hanoi?Saturday that the East Asia countries must move regional and global economic cooperation and integration to the higher level, contributing to enhancing regionalism and global cooperation.
Kuroda made the proposal at the fifth East Asia Summit (EAS) that was held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi city on Saturday on the sideline of the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.
In his speech at the EAS, Kuroda held an economic outlook for developing Asia. He said the speed and depth of Asia's recovery from the global economic downturn is a surprise.
According to Kuroda, the V-shaped recovery model that he suggested last year is now a fact, with Asia's gross domestic product expecting to be 8.2 percent in 2010, compared to that of 5. 4 percent in 2009.
The robust economic recovery was driven hard by a strong revival in exports, said Kuroda.
However, the East Asian economies are now facing some risks and challenges including unemployment, maintaining both fiscal discipline and recovery target, avoiding protectionism as well as ill-managing monetary and foreign exchange policies, according to Kuroda.
To solve these problems and maintain recovery and ensure financial stability to the region, Kuroda suggested that East Asian countries should bring the process of cooperation and integration to a new level, such as putting into force the region' s free trade agreements, boosting cross-border investment by developing cross-border infrastructure, and greater exchange rate cooperation.
