"Compared with other regional cooperative mechanisms, particularly the European economic and monetary union, Asian nations are more diversified in history, culture, political regime,and levels of economic development," Xiang said in a keynote speech at the third Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Finance Ministers' Meeting, which was held in Kobe, western Japan.

"Therefore, there is still a long way to go and arduous task ahead for these nations, and they must choose a cooperative pattern suitable to the regional characteristics rather than copy others' models," Xiang said.

Since the East Asian cooperation was initiated by the Leaders' Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea in 1997 in the aftermath of a financial crisis which hit Asia, Xiang said, the East Asian cooperation started from the financial field, instead of starting from trade cooperation as the case in other regions.

Xiang also said that the current cooperation among the East Asian countries should start from the areas where the consensus can be more easily reached, and then spread gradually to other areas on the basis of consolidation.

The East Asian cooperation has emerged along with the vigorous momentum of regionalization in global economy, which is consistent with economic globalization, he said.

He noted that the globalization, while having accelerated world economic development, has also brought about the problem of uneven distribution of benefits and accentuated global economic polarization.

As a result of dramatic advancement of modern information technology, the Digital Divide has further widened the income and development gap between the developed and developing countries, Xiang said, adding that many developing countries found themselves increasingly marginalized in the course of globalization.

The Chinese finance minister expressed his belief that economic cooperation in East Asia will help maintain the financial

stability and economic development in the region, and enable Asian nations to participate in the global cooperation and make contribution to the orderly progress of globalization.

Finance ministers from 10 Asian countries and 15 European nations attended the two-day meeting, which concluded earlier Sunday.

The Asian members of ASEM are China, Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Indonesia Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and

Vietnam, while the European bloc consists of Austria, Belgium, Britain Denmark, Finland France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the European Commission.

(People's Daily 01/15/01)