China should play an important role to promote East Asian economic co-operation along with the rapid development of foreign trade and foriegn direct investment (FDI) in China, said economists attending the China Development Forum.
    
East Asian countries have a common responsibility to institutionalize regional integration, and China should be at the centre of this movement, said Lee Kyung-tae, president of the South Korean Institute for International Economic Policy.
    
Compared with the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), East Asia lags far behind in the development of a regional co-operation system, said Lee.
    
China is emerging as a major player in the East Asian community, with its rapidly growing trade and FDI.
    
"Under these circumstances, China's rapid development and East Asian economic development can only be harmonized if China plays a more affirmative role in building regional economic co-operation system," he added.
    
China's rapid development has had a great impact on the entire global economy in almost every way. In particular, due to their proximity to China, East Asian countries are in the middle of the global changes and transitions resulting from a rising China.
    
China's trade volume was US$38 billion in 1980, US$115 billion in 1990 and US$1.15 trillion last year. China's accession to the World Trade Organization accelerated this growth, with its annual growth rate exceeding 30 per cent after 2001. 
    
"China has been the global assembly hub of many East Asian factories," he added. 

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