September 29-30, 2003Beijing

The first annual conference of the Network of East Asian Think-tanks (NEAT) was held in Beijing, Chinafrom 29 to 30 September, 2003, which marked the inauguration of the NEAT. Nearly 100 scholars from ASEAN, China, Japanand the ROK (10+3) attended the conference. H.E. Mr. Tang Jiaxuan, the State Councilor of China, made a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Conference. The delegates had an in-depth discussion on important issues of East Asiacooperation and the development of the NEAT.

Major issues in the process of East AsiaCooperation

The delegates recognized that East Asiacooperation has made great progress although it started not long time ago. East Asiacooperation is not only supported by the East Asian countries, but also accepted by other countries of the world. The Report of the East Asia Vision Group (EAVG) sketched a blueprint of East Asiacooperation, with an East Asia Community as its long-term goal. Based on that, the Final Report of East Asia Study Group (EASG) proposed 26 concrete measures. It is necessary to carry out concrete cooperation in all the fields and march towards an East Asia Community.

Most of the scholars held that East Asiacooperation should strengthen institutional building, proposed to start the East Asian Summit at an early date and to set up a secretariat for the development of East Asiacooperation. It is also appropriate to consider the establishment of a regional cooperation organization suited to the actual conditions of East Asia.

---- The East Asian Summit.

Many scholars from ASEAN countries suggested the first East Asian Summit (EAS) be held symbolically for half an hour during the 8th10+3 Summitnext year in Laos. And the formal EAS will be held in Malaysiain 2005, the same place where the first 10+3 Summitwas held. The EAS will not replace the ASEAN Summit. The ASEAN leaders may continue its practice to hold an internal meeting before EAS. Some ASEAN scholars had different opinions on it, and insisted any changes of 10+3 cooperation should not weaken the core role of ASEAN in the process.

---- The Establishment of a Secretariat.

Many scholars held that it was necessary to establish a supporting mechanism of East Asiacooperation to provide service to cooperation in all

fields. The options for setting up such a mechanism are as follows: (1) to establish the coordinating organs in different countries for different cooperation fields, and then incorporate them into a consolidated secretariat at an appropriate time; (2) to set up an East Asian Cooperation Unit within ASEAN Secretariat as an interim measure, and then establish an independent organization at an appropriate time. Some scholars were of the view that ASEAN Secretariat had already taken a heavy burden. A separate organization should be established at an early date.

---- East AsiaFree Trade Area (FTA).

The Scholars believed that the establishment of East Asia FTA should become the top priority of East Asiacooperation. They suggested that the research on East Asia FTA should be launched at an early date while supporting the current ASEAN FTA (AFTA) and ASEAN+1 FTA. A Task Force could be set up to carry out the research and finish a report of feasibility study within 2 years.

---- Cooperation of Finance and Currency.

The Scholars concurred that cooperation in this area has made considerable progress, while the cooperation level still needs to be improved. The cooperation mechanism under the framework of Chiang Mai Initiatives should be improved and upgraded as soon as possible. One scholar from a Northeast Asian country suggested that a regional coordinating mechanism on currency exchange rate in East Asia and a regional financial monitoring and management mechanism be set up to cope with the financial crisis that could possibly occur once again.

The building of the NEAT

The scholars unanimously agreed that the NEAT was an important step forward in East Asiacooperation. The NEAT could attract more people from the intellectual circle to participate in the regional cooperation process. The scholars gave their full support to the development of the NEAT and expressed their willingness to take an active part in its activities.

The scholars agreed that:

---- The English abbreviation for Network of East Asian Think-tanks is the NEAT. It is identified as track II of East Asia cooperation and its main tasks are to providing intellectual support to and policy recommendations on important issues and the directions of the East Asiacooperation, and to do research on the issues raised during the 10+3 Summitand from the EASG. The members of the NEAT could be invited to participate in track I meetings of East Asia Cooperation, and set up relations with international organizations and think-tanks of other countries and regions, as well as to cooperate with other mechanisms such as the East Asia Forum.

---- Chinais the coordinating country in general for the NEAT. Each participating country should designate a research institution as its country coordinator who would organize and coordinate the institutions and researchers of its own country, and contact with other country coordinators and arrange network activities through the coordinating country in general.

---- The NEAT is an open mechanism without fixed institutional members or scholar members. However, every country should provide the coordinating country in general with the list of institutions and scholars of their respective countries on East Asiastudies so that a database might be set up in this field.

---- The NEAT is an institutional mechanism of think-tanks in East Asian region and supported by the governments in this region. The government of each member country should provide financial support for the normal operation of the NEAT. The NEAT Fund is proposed to be set up at an early date.

The NEAT website (http://www.neat.org) will be registered in China.

The next conference of the NEAT will be held in Thailandand sponsored by the ThammasatUniversity.