"China's presence in the WTO will help balance the interests of developing members and developed members within the world's trading system," Chinese Vice Foreign Trade Minister Long Yong-tu told an international seminar which opened here.

The two-day "International Workshop on China's Entry into WTO: China- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Challenges and Areas of Cooperation" is co-organised by the ASEAN Foundation, the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and the Association of Universities of the Asia and the Pacific (AUAP).

"Forging closer ties with other developing countries is the cornerstone of China's foreign policy and China will always stand firm on the side of fellow developing countries," Long said in his keynote speech at the meeting.

"In the new round of multilateral trade talks, China and other developing countries share lots of common interests in increasing market access for products from developing countries, opposing abuse of anti-dumping policy, stopping unfair technical trade barriers and other issues," he stressed.

China also maintains that the market liberalisation in developing countries should be made step by step and rash opening-up would hurt interests of developing countries, said the official.

Long, who had headed negotiations for China's entry into the WTO for many years, said China's market is not only open to the developed world but also to the developing countries.

"China is gradually cutting import duties, which is benefiting developing countries including those in ASEAN," he said.

ASEAN's annual trade surplus against China grew from 1.6 billion US dollars in 1998 to 5 billion dollars last year and will continue to increase.

"That does not worry us. Instead, we consider it as a evidence for the inter-complementarity between China and ASEAN and we are glad to see the growth of ASEAN's competitiveness," Long said.

Despite competition in certain areas, ASEAN and China could turn these competitions into partnership via cooperation, he noted.

The framework for trade cooperation signed by ASEAN and Chinese leaders in the recent ASEAN Summit, aimed to create a free trade area in 10 years, will provide a platform for both sides to change competition into partnership, said Long.

The meeting is attended by 50 experts from governments, academic institutions and business sectors of China and ASEAN, who will analyse the effect of China's entry into the WTO on both China and ASEAN and discuss issues such as regional integration, trade cooperation and human resources development.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.