Opinion

'Good news for the world' as Asian economies regain place

By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-04 10:50

BRUSSELS - The rising economic strength of China, India and other emerging economies is not a threat but "good news" for the world, a senior French diplomat has said.

"People familiar with Asia and Asian history never doubted that China, India and other countries would regain their place in the world economy It is good news for the world," said Dominique Girard, executive director of the Singapore-based Asia-Europe Foundation.

Girard said that Asia and Europe should deepen political and people-to-people dialogues to gain a better understanding of the global power shift. Girard was the French ambassador to Indonesia (1992-1995), Australia (1995-2000) and India (2002-2007).

However, during an interview with China Daily, Girard said the pace of this change is fast and "quick evolutions need to be handled with care" if they are not to be perceived as unsettling.

Cooperation between Asian and European leaders and dialogue between Asia and Europe are therefore very important. The financial and economic crisis has shown that this process is indispensable, given the risk of seeing self-interest dominating the international agenda, he said.

Misconceptions about the benefits of closer cooperation with the other region exist in both Asia and Europe.

"Lack of knowledge, short-term visions, self-centered preoccupations are in my view a big reason for this," he said.

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For example, the European Union (EU) has been unified for many years and the commercial exchanges between its members and any Asian country should be seen as just a subdivision of the only significant entity - the EU.

"However, some otherwise well informed commentators still refuse to admit the fact," he said.

Asian countries are pushing their own intra-regional effort at dialogue, he added. It is frustrating when some Europeans are unable to adopt a regional approach to Asia - appreciating and encompassing its diversity and huge potential as a whole.

Regarding the challenges of boosting understanding, he said that the biggest hurdle is the extremely heavy agenda the leaders of the two continents have to address. In addition to their own national and intra-regional problems, they have to adjust to global challenges that were hardly perceived 10 or 15 years ago. These include climate change, energy and food security, migrations, inter-communal relations and terrorism.