Jiji press reported about Japan’s plan to start economic partnership agreements between 16 Asian and Pacific nations to build an economic bloc with a population over 3 billion people and to improve intellectual property protection.
Member states should be:
Japan, India, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam).
Planned start of negotiations is 2009.
