by Xinhua writer Shi Xiaomeng
BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- As COVID-19 rages across the globe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is scheduled to join other East Asian leaders in a special video meeting on Tuesday to address the dual challenge of beating the coronavirus disease and reinvigorating the economy.
The virtual gathering takes place within the "10+3" cooperation framework, which groups the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, Japan and South Korea.
Though speaking in their own conference rooms far apart from one another, the leaders need to come together even closer, expand their consensus and draw a more effective action plan to prevail over the disease at an early date.
The good news is that those countries have already set their coordination and cooperation in motion.
In February, foreign ministers of China and ASEAN held a special meeting in the Lao capital of Vientiane to discuss steps to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A month later, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a special video conference on COVID-19 with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts for joint measures to fight the epidemic and resume economic cooperation.
And in their joint battle against the deadly pathogen, those countries have exemplified the spirit of humanitarianism and good-neighborliness by helping each other with urgently needed medical supplies like face masks and protective gears.
As China has largely put the epidemic under control, it has dispatched teams of medical experts to Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Myanmar to help with local anti-virus efforts.
At the moment, although the epidemic situation in the region has exhibited some positive signs, infections worldwide are still growing apace.
The countries in the region need to take the video meeting as an opportunity to step up their joint prevention and control measures, and to align their efforts in research and development of effective drugs and vaccines.
Mitigating the epidemic's impact on regional trade and economy and planning for a post-pandemic recovery are also major tasks for East Asian countries, which account for roughly a quarter of the global economy.
The economic growth in East Asia and the Pacific region could slow to 2.1 percent in the baseline scenario from an estimated 5.8 percent in 2019, according to World Bank projections.
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) also predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic would cost the Asia-Pacific region 0.8 percent of gross domestic product, an estimated 172 billion U.S. dollars, due to a massive drop in global demand for their exports alone.
To minimize the impact on social and economic development in the region, the East Asian countries should guarantee essential flows of personnel, trade and investment so as to navigate the ship of the regional economy through the rough waters.
They also need to better coordinate their macro-economic policies and jointly build a momentum for an exuberant economic recovery after the pandemic is over.
The "10+3" cooperation mechanism was established in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis when ASEAN countries decided to enhance cooperation with other major economies in Asia.
The framework has over the years expanded into the fields of politics, security, public health and cultural exchanges, among others, and served as a platform to jointly cope with common challenges.
Now that the "10+3" countries are facing a monumental test again, they can and should do a better job this time.
