About 100 Chinese and Republic of Korea (ROK) scholars discussed plans for the economic integration process in northeast Asia here Thursday at a seminar jointly held by the Beijing University and ROK's Kyung Hee University.

Northeast Asia, occupying 40 percent of Asian total land, has become the world's most energetic area, said Pao Wenyi, former president of the Yanbian University. In the regional economic integration process, northeast Asian countries should learn from the European Union, which is the most advanced regional community in the world, he said.

The stable and peaceful political environment, frequent mutual visits of state leaders and economic and technological cooperationare the basic conditions for the construction of northeast Asian economic community, he said.

The economy of China, ROK and Japan is highly interdependent currently, he said. In 2004, 7.7 percent of China's foreign trade was with ROK, and 14.5 percent of China's foreign trade was with Japan, while 18.8 percent of ROK's foreign trade and 16 percent ofJapan's foreign trade were with China, he said.

The establishment of fixed regional organizations is essential for the construction of northeast Asian economic community, said Professor Choue Chungwon with the Kyung Hee University, noting China, ROK and Japan should unify their standards in IT industry manufacture.

Huang Youfu, director of the ROK culture institute of the Central University for Nationalities, suggested northeast Asia should learn from experience of north America and Europe so as to speed up the construction of free trade area (FTA).

The FTA will help the three countries to increase their export,restructure their industry, reduce trade disputes, expand investment and enhance national welfare, he said.

In October 2003, state leaders of China, Japan and ROK signed ajoint declaration in Indonesia to boost three-party cooperation ineconomy, trade, culture, personnel exchanges and security.

Source: Xinhua