Coronavirus: China, Asean ministers vow to boost cooperation to fight epidemic

BANGKOK - China and Asean's foreign ministers in a special meeting in Vientiane on Thursday (Feb 20) agreed to step up cooperation in combating the coronavirus epidemic while reducing its economic and social impact.

They pledged to share information and best practices in a timely manner, mitigate supply chain disruptions of urgent medical goods, and promote research and development of medicines and vaccines.

They also committed to "resume and enhance exchanges and cooperation" on the people-to-people, trade and investment fronts when the epidemic is controlled.

China has locked down the city of Wuhan - where the virus is believed to originate - and imposed stay-at-home orders for tens of millions of people in a bid to contain the virus that has killed over 2,000 people so far.

But Beijing has criticised countries like Australia that have rushed to shut their borders to people coming from China, upsetting the education sector.

Within Asean, the approaches to contain the epidemic have varied.

While Vietnam and Singapore have barred entry to anyone who has been to mainland China in the past 14 days, Cambodia and Thailand have kept their doors firmly open to Chinese travellers.

Still, regional trade and manufacturing networks have been upended by travel disruptions, and economists are expecting the logjam to decimate economic growth.

Singapore, for example, may slide into a recession.

Myanmar, which has suspended visas on arrival for Chinese tourists, had to postpone a highly lucrative gem emporium to be held in March in Naypyitaw. Its garment factories have slowed production because of disruptions to their supply of raw materials, The Irrawaddy Journal reported.

Over in Vietnam, the closure of several border gates with China has held up hundreds of containers of produce. Smartphone maker Samsung has been forced to fly electrical parts to its factories in Vietnam to maintain production, reported the Financial Times.

Thailand's state planning agency on Monday cut its 2020 economic growth forecast to 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent, down from 2.7 per cent to 3.7 per cent. Despite keeping visas on arrival available for Chinese tourists, the Tourism Ministry expects revenue to plummet by 250 billion baht (S$11 billion).

Speaking at a dinner for the foreign ministers on Wednesday night, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi praised Asean countries for their support of China and expressed confidence that his country was winning the battle against the coronavirus.

"I believe that the China-Asean relations and China's ties with each of the Asean members will be further deepened after the test of the epidemic," he was quoted by China's Xinhua news agency as saying.

Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan, in an interview with Channel NewsAsia, said the next two to three weeks is going to be a crucial period, where the world will have a clearer idea if the actions taken by China and other countries have borne fruit or if there is widespread community transmission.

If "you see across north-east Asia and South-east Asia widespread community transmission, then you know you are in a completely different phase of what I believe may become a global pandemic".

While the minister did not think that any country has been lax in its response to the virus threat, Dr Balakrishnan worried about the virus taking hold in countries which had healthcare systems that were less able to cope.

"Given the diversity in South-east Asia, the diversity in the sophistication of healthcare systems, it will be dreadful if we have an epidemic or pandemic that catches a light in countries whose healthcare systems are much less able to cope," he said. "If we do our best and if we cooperate with our neighhbours, we can reduce the potential impact it has on others…whose economies and healthcare systems may actually be less able to tolerate this challenge."