SINGAPORE, Nov 30: Southeast Asia has a role to play even if China becomes the “factory of the world,” a senior Chinese minister said on Friday ahead of China’s imminent accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Economic Co-operation Long Yongtu said Beijing’s interest in an ASEAN-China free trade zone, which would be the world’s largest, indicated its commitment to Southeast Asia.

Here on a three-day visit, Beijing’s WTO chief negotiator added: “Even if China becomes the factory of the world, we still need raw materials, services, capital... there will be great opportunities for countries to cooperate with China.”

China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed at a summit in early November to work towards a free trade area which would encompass two billion people by the time it is completed in 10 years.

Long said there was a future for China’s neighbours even if it became an economic powerhouse after joining the WTO on December 11.

“We must not forget that China will also be the market of the world... another United States of America in terms of the market,” Long said.

Besides its 1.3 billion population, one million Chinese private enterprises are very eager to invest overseas but lack the international experience, and they need the services and training expertise and advice of their ASEAN counterparts, he said.

“I hope that the SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in this region will play that role to make the foreign investments of Chinese enterprises powerful,” he said.

He added it was unfair for China to be blamed for Southeast Asia’s dwindling FDI inflows.

“I do not think that the FDI going into China has been at the cost of FDI that was intended to go to ASEAN countries. I do not think there is a logical link between these two.”

China, along with its territory Hong Kong, captured 80 per cent of the FDI last year in the Asian region outside of Japan. This left Southeast Asia with a meagre 8.6 per cent, down sharply from its 33.5-per cent share of the FDI pie in 1996.

Long said the trend was decided by the market after the 1997 financial crisis and was not the result of China’s accession into the WTO.

“Even though China has done well in its FDI, it is a very tiny part of the total FDI in the world,” he added.

He said instead of bickering, ASEAN and China should cooperate on improving the investment environment in the region and expanding East Asia’s share of FDI inflows.—AFP