Increased Interdependence in the East Asian Community

The concept of the East Asian community has a long history, but it has acquired considerable appeal since the late 1990s. The 1997-98 Asian financial crisis underscored the need for such regional groups to connect the countries of the region. Since that time, many community building initiatives such as ASEAN + 3, Chiang Mai Initiative, East Asia Summit, etc. have been implemented. In addition, the region signed a series of bilateral and multilateral free trade and economic partnership agreements.

For the East Asian government, ASEAN + 3 is a convenient insurance for East Asia to deal with Washington and is a way to express regional solidarity through social, economic cooperation and mutual dependence. The day-long leadership competition took the heart, but the concept of this new East Asian community is getting momentum in the coming years. Lastly, in Singapore in January 2002, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed expanding the East Asian Community including cooperation beyond trade and finance issues, promoting regional integration with Australia and New Zealand as members. When the first East Asia Summit was held in 2005, Australia, New Zealand and India were asked to participate in the ASEAN + 3 Alliance.

However, East Asian countries have achieved relatively strong economic interdependence. The relative advantage of interdependence makes East Asia an important region of the global economy (Dent, 2008). The following are some of the factors that contribute to the economic interdependence of East Asian countries: 1) Fast pace of liberalization. In only twenty years East Asian countries have successfully implemented free economic policy. Structural reforms are taking place at micro (industrial) and macroeconomic levels; 2) expansion of foreign trade