외교부

His Excellency, Assistant Minister Liu Zhenmin,
Distinguished delegates,

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Chinese government for hosting the 9th East Asia Forum.  Since its inauguration, the EAF has played a key role in promoting cooperation between the private and public sectors. I am honored to be speaking at this year's Forum, and I very much look forward to a lively discussion today.

Distinguished delegates,

East Asia is now playing a greater role than ever before in the world.  In particular, the increase in the economic scale of the ASEAN Plus Three has been quite remarkable. It accounts for 20 percent of the global GDP and 25 percent of the global trade volume. 

The East Asian economy has served as the main engine leading the recovery from the global financial crisis in 2008. Indeed, East Asia is emerging as a key region of the world economy.

Despite these encouraging signs, the economic development of East Asia is still considerably influenced by forces that extend beyond the boundaries of the region. In order to achieve continuous regional prosperity and progress, internal growth strategies must be realigned to respond effectively to changing external circumstances. In light of such challenges, the main theme of the 9th East Asia Forum, "Internal Growth Engine of East Asia", is particularly relevant and opportune.

Today, I would like to present to you two policy directions for accelerating regional integration in East Asia and sustaining the momentum for internal growth.    

First of all, we have to speed up efforts to build an East Asian economic community. I believe that regional economic integration can be a new source of internal growth for sustainable development.

In recent years, we have seen considerable progress in the field of financial cooperation. In addition to crisis resolution, the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization has now a new function of crisis prevention. 

Also, the ASEAN Plus Three Macroeconomic Research Office was established in Singapore earlier this year. Tasked to monitor and assess regional financial situations, this Office will further strengthen regional financial cooperation.

In addition, ASEAN Plus Three has also worked hard to develop the East Asian regional bond market. Such a market contributes to creating a virtuous cycle in which regional savings add up to regional investment. Thanks to our efforts, the scale of the East Asian regional bond market has expanded from 8 trillion dollars in 2008 to 17 trillion dollars in 2010. Moreover, the recent agreement on establishing the Credit Guarantee Investment Facility will further contribute to the development of the East Asian bond market and boost investment in the region.

Progress is made gradually, and yet surely many efforts have been made to promote regional trade cooperation as well. Taking into account geographic proximities within the region, we can expect to generate a multitude of opportunities with relatively low cost in the process of deepening economic integration. Economic integration, which clears away barriers to trade in goods and services and allows capital, people and even knowledge to flow in an unrestrained manner, promises enormous benefits to all the countries. This is why I strongly believe that we should strive to reap tangible progress in ongoing discussions on economic integration such as the creation of EAFTA and CEPEA.

Second, we need to remain firm in our commitment to narrowing the development gap to fuel internal growth in East Asia. The regional development gap is one of the most considerable impediments to achieving regional integration.

The East Asian region still suffers from significant development gaps among the countries. Recent statistics show that there is a 10 to 20 fold  disparity in GDP and per capita income between developed and developing countries in the region. Indeed, economic integration fraught with regional development gaps will make it difficult for the countries in the region to share the benefits of free trade. Therefore, it is imperative to come up with substantial ways to narrow the regional development gap with a view to realizing East Asian regional integration.

For now, ASEAN member countries are trying to bridge the development gap with the "Master Plan for ASEAN Connectivity" and "Initiative for ASEAN Integration."  The ROK, China and Japan, for their part, are joining the efforts in various ways.

Today, I would like to emphasize the necessity to reinforce sub-regional cooperation as one of the ways to narrow the regional development gap. As part of this effort, Korea plans to hold the inaugural Korea-Mekong Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Seoul next month, thereby strengthening sub-regional cooperation. Korea will explore cooperative possibilities with the Mekong region countries, thereby contributing to promoting regional prosperity.   

Distinguished delegates,

The two directions that I suggest today, establishing a regional economic community and narrowing the development gap, will be a starting point to achieving higher levels of East Asian regional integration. 

Some skeptics point to the extraordinary range of cultures, ethnicities, and religions that exist in East Asia as the major obstacle to achieving regional integration. However, I believe that the prospects of East Asian integration hinge not on the degree to which these countries are similar, but on whether they share the grander vision that can transcend regional differences and how much they truly yearn for regional integration. Therefore, the question that we need to ask ourselves is not how much we are similar to one another, but whether we are dreaming the same dream. On this optimistic note, I would like to conclude my remarks and look forward to sharing our aspirations and dreams for East Asia community building in the forthcoming conversations.

Thank you for your attention.