Full Text: China-Japan-ROK Cooperation (1999-2012)
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 10, 2012
IV. Sustainable development
1. Circular economy
China-Japan-ROK circular economy model base is a priority project for trilateral cooperation in the area of sustainable development. China put forward the proposal for building the model base at the Second Trilateral Summit Meeting in 2009, and the Joint Statement on Sustainable Development issued at the summit pledged to explore the possibility of building model bases and make joint efforts to promote resource-conserving and environment-friendly industrial structure, growth pattern and consumption mode. The National Development and Reform Commission of China, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade and the ROK Ministry of Environment have established communication channels at the working level, and decided to choose a location for the model base in China.
2. Science and technology
Currently, trilateral cooperation in science and technology is mainly conducted through two mechanisms, the trilateral ministerial meeting and DG meeting on science and technology cooperation. The meetings are both held every two years in rotation among the three countries. The participants to the meetings include the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the ROK. As of February 2012, the three parties had held two ministerial meetings and five DG meetings. The Third Trilateral Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology was held in Shanghai in April 2012, and the Sixth Director-General's Meeting will be held in China in 2013.
During the Second Trilateral Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology in 2009, the three parties launched a joint research program to support joint studies by scientists of the three countries. The program is co-sponsored by the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). Up till now, the three parties have already jointly supported six programs in two phases, covering areas from sewage treatment, new materials and disaster prevention to climate change and energy-saving technologies. The three parties started soliciting projects for the third phase of the program in April 2012.
Also during the Second Trilateral Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology, the three parties launched a young scientists' exchange program, and agreed to hold a young scientists' seminar on a different theme every year in rotation among the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the ROK. The first young scientists' seminar was held in Jeju, the ROK in May 2010, and the second seminar was held in Shanghai in April 2012.
In the Joint Statement on Strengthening Science and Innovation Cooperation and the Trilateral Cooperation VISION 2020 issued during the Third Trilateral Summit Meeting in May 2010, the three countries pledged to work hard in a concerted effort to raise the level of science and technology and innovation capacity in support of socio-economic development in the three countries, and jointly address regional and global issues. In order to advance trilateral cooperation on industrial technologies, upon the proposal of the ROK, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of the ROK co-hosted the First Industrial Technology Cooperation Forum among China, Japan and the ROK in November 2010. The second trilateral Industrial Technology Cooperation Forum was held in China in October 2011, during which the three countries exchanged views on a broad range of issues concerning renewable energy cooperation.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the ROK hosted the Korea-China-Japan Green Technology Forum in Jeju, the ROK in 2010, which was participated by representatives of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. Later, upon the proposal of the ROK, the first green technology forum co-hosted by the three parties was held in Tokyo in March 2012.
During the Fourth Trilateral Summit Meeting in May 2011, China put forward the proposal for the establishment of a trilateral Innovation Alliance on Renewable Energy among the industry, academia and research institutions to build on the strengths and resources of the three countries for common progress in the area of renewable energy. The Ministry of Science and Technology of China has already introduced the concrete proposal for the development of the innovation alliance to Japan and the ROK.
3. Environmental protection
Environmental protection is one of the first and most fruitful areas of trilateral cooperation. The Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting is an important platform for the three countries to carry out dialogue on environment policies and promote regional sustainable development. Since the launch of the mechanism in 1999, 13 tripartite environment ministers meetings have been held in rotation among the three countries. A joint communique was issued at the end of each tripartite environment ministers meeting to capture the consensus reached by the three parties on important regional and global environmental issues.
The 11th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting held in June 2009 identified ten priority areas for environmental protection, i.e. environmental education, environmental awareness and public participation; climate change (synergy effect, low-carbon society, green growth, etc.); biodiversity conservation; dust and sandstorm; pollution control (air, water and marine environment, etc.); environment-friendly / 3R / sound resource recycle society; transboundary movement of electronic waste; sound management of chemicals; environmental governance in Northeast Asia; and environmental industries and technologies. In May 2010, a joint action plan for tripartite cooperation in environmental protection was adopted at the 12th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting. The ten priority areas and the joint action plan have provided important guidance for the three countries to carry out substantive cooperation.
Within the framework of the Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting, the environmental protection authorities of the three countries have conducted diverse and fruitful cooperation in the ten priority areas, including the establishment of the mechanism for jointly combating illegal transboundary movement of electronic waste, trilateral seminar on environmental education, trilateral training program on environmental education, environmental protection textbook for children of the three countries, trilateral joint research program on dust and sandstorm, trilateral seminar on green economy, trilateral seminar on 3R, trilateral seminar on photochemical oxides, trilateral chemical policy dialogue, joint study on Northeast Asia environmental governance, trilateral roundtable of environment protection industries, etc. Through these channels, the three countries have made continued progress in carrying out practical environmental protection cooperation at both policy and technical levels.
4. Agriculture
The scale and national conditions of agriculture as well as economic development levels of China, Japan and the ROK are different. Strengthening agricultural cooperation among them is not only helpful for promoting agricultural development of the three countries, but also conducive to improving the well-being of people in the three countries and maintaining food security of Asia and the world as a whole.
At the Second Trilateral Summit Meeting in 2009, leaders of the three countries reached the consensus to "explore a mechanism of tripartite agricultural cooperation". The First Trilateral Agriculture Ministers' Meeting was held in the ROK in April 2012. Chinese Agriculture Minister Han Changfu, ROK Minister Suh Kyu Yong for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Japanese Minister Michihiko Kano of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries led delegations to the meeting and had in-depth exchange of views on food security, disease prevention and control for animals and plants, the set-up of agricultural partnership and other global and regional hot-spot issues concerning agriculture or food. They also issued a joint communique. The success of the meeting marked significant improvement of the tripartite agricultural cooperation mechanism and the growing tripartite agricultural cooperation in depth and breath.
Agricultural Technology
In August 2007, the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the National Institute of Crop Science of the Rural Development Administration of the ROK and the Institute of Crop Science of Japan signed a memorandum of understanding on scientific and technological cooperation with each other and decided to hold a China-Japan-ROK symposium on crop sciences alternately in the three countries. Since 2008, four symposiums have been held to promote and enhance tripartite exchanges in areas such as scientific research and industrial development of rice and soybean and to push forward tripartite exchanges of agricultural science and technology. The fifth symposium will be held in Beijing in 2012.
In October 2003, the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) and the Japanese Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (PRIMAFF) discussed together future tripartite cooperation in areas such as rural economy and trade of agricultural products and set up a forum for agricultural policy research in Northeast Asia which has now undergone development for eight years.
China, Japan and the ROK have common aspirations for promoting sustainable agricultural development, speeding up innovation of agricultural science and technology and transferring them into productivity. As the next step, the three countries will enhance strategic research on agricultural science and technology, and agree on cooperation projects through such ways as project match-making symposiums. The three countries will identify priority areas of cooperation on agricultural science and technology and engage in exchanges and cooperation on food security study, sustainable agricultural production and introduction of small agricultural machinery.
Fishery Science and Technology
Since 1990, the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, the Fisheries Research Agency of Japan and the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute of the ROK have jointly carried out academic exchanges among scientific and technical personnel and held a China-Japan-ROK symposium on fishery science and technology every year. By November 2011, 22 symposiums had been held, during which fishery experts from the three countries released more than 300 papers. The Symposium has played a positive role in promoting the scientific research and management in areas such as conservation of fishery resources and marine ecological and environmental protection of the three countries.
In June 2006, heads of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, the Fisheries Research Agency of Japan and the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute of the ROK signed an MOU in Busan, the ROK and decided to hold a trilateral meeting of heads of fisheries research institutes alternately every year to further develop their cooperative partnership. Up to now, five such meetings have been held.
The three countries have actively promoted the exchanges of fishery scientific and technical personnel under the mechanisms of China-Japan-ROK symposium on fishery science and technology and China-Japan-ROK meeting of heads of fisheries research institutes.
Within the framework of the MOU signed by the three countries, their competent institutions have had joint studies on the cooperation areas jointly identified by the three countries, and engaged in extensive cooperation in fields such as climate impact on fishery and the environment, the occurrence of giant jellyfish, and the easing of pressure on the large marine ecosystem of the Yellow Sea. As a result, a favorable atmosphere of win-win cooperation has been formed gradually, forcefully promoting the sustainable development of fishery science and technology of the three countries.
Against the backdrop of quickening global fishery integration and increasing demand for fishery scientific and technological development, China, Japan and the ROK should step up cooperation in the following areas: expand cooperation areas, continue with their joint studies in culture and stock enhancement in fishery, the impact of climate change on marine environment and resources, safety study of aquatic products, study on giant jellyfish, study on low-carbon society of energy conservation, study on the protection of coastal ecological system and resources and technologies of sustainable utilization, etc; enhance platform building, continue to improve the two mechanisms of China-Japan-ROK symposium on fishery science and technology and China-Japan-ROK meeting of heads of fisheries research institutes, explore the building of platforms such as bilateral or multi-lateral joint laboratories or testing sites and promote joint study projects.
5. Water resources
Due to the impact of global climate change, extreme weather has been frequent, leading to acute problems such as flooding, drought and water shortage. Such problems have become a common challenge to the Asia-Pacific and the whole world. China, Japan and the ROK all belong to the Northeast Asia region, and are friendly neighbors separated by only a strip of water. They enjoy extensive exchanges and sound cooperation in the field of water conservancy.
The Second Trilateral Summit Meeting in 2009 issued the Joint Statement on Sustainable Development which read "establish a mechanism for meeting of ministers responsible for water resources in due course, focusing on integrated river management and water resources management adapting to climate change". In March 2012, China, Japan and the ROK signed an memorandum of cooperation on the mechanism of ministerial meeting among the Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Korea and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan in Marseille, France, in which they decided to hold "a ministerial meeting at least every three years", covering cooperation areas such as policy exchanges and dialogue, experience and information sharing, joint scientific research, capacity-building and release of common position paper. The signing of the memorandum of cooperation marked a new stage of tripartite cooperation in the field of water resources.
Prior to the inception of the mechanism of ministerial meeting of water resources, tripartite cooperation on water conservancy was carried out mainly under the mechanism of the World Water Forum. During the Fourth World Water Forum and the Ministerial Meeting held in Mexico in March 2006, the Ministry of Water Resources of China, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan and the then Ministry of Construction and Transportation of the ROK jointly hosted three sub-meetings on "flooding management", "river restoration in the monsoon areas of Asia" and "information system of water resources", and released a joint initiative of the sub-meetings of China, Japan and the ROK in the Fourth World Water Forum.
During the Fifth World Water Forum and the Ministerial Meeting held in Turkey in March 2009, the Ministry of Water Resources of China hosted a special sub-meeting on major natural disasters and risk management of water conservancy infrastructure. Japan and the ROK attended the special sub-meeting at invitation. Thanks to the coordination of the organizing committee of the Forum, the Ministry of Water Resources of China, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of the ROK and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan jointly hosted the Ministerial Roundtable Meeting on Water and Disasters. The three parties also signed a joint statement on water management cooperation and expressed their willingness to consider the signing of a memorandum of cooperation, engage in joint studies and hold the trilateral Ministerial Meeting of Water.
During the Sixth World Water Forum and the Ministerial Meeting held in France in March 2012, the three countries signed a memorandum of cooperation. The Ministry of Water Resources of China and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan jointly held the Ministerial Roundtable Meeting on Water and Disasters.
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