ASEAN sees strength in unity<\/p>\n
By Robert Birsel<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Reuter): Leaders of disparate southeast Asian
\ncountries, divided by language, religion and culture, are pushing
\nahead with an ambitious plan to integrate their booming economies
\ninto one of the world's largest common markets.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1967 as a pro-Western bloc in what was then a far-
\nfrom-stable backwater, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
\n(ASEAN) today groups some of the world's most dynamic emerging
\neconomies.<\/p>\n
The seven-member group includes Indonesia, the world's most
\npopulous Moslem country, the Philippines, Asia's only
\npredominantly Christian country, and Buddhist Thailand.<\/p>\n
The tiny oil-rich sultanate of Brunei, fast-growing, multi-
\nethnic Malaysia, and the prosperous island republic of Singapore
\nare also members.<\/p>\n
Last July communist Vietnam, ASEAN's bogey man for its first
\ntwo decades of existence, became the seventh member.<\/p>\n
ASEAN now has a combined population of some 420 million people
\nand if all goes to plan, in the next few years it will grow to
\ninclude Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, and have a population of
\nclose to 500 million.<\/p>\n
"Wider and deeper" has become ASEAN's rallying cry as leaders
\ncall for broader membership and deeper economic cooperation built
\non the foundation of their ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).<\/p>\n
"Our common objectives are clear, all the ASEAN countries have
\nreaffirmed their determination to foster peace and prosperity for
\nthe peoples of southeast Asia," Thai Prime Minister Banharn
\nSilpa-archa said in a closing address at the group's fifth summit
\nmeeting in Bangkok in December.<\/p>\n
"ASEAN has already expanded to cover Vietnam and agreed in
\nprinciple to expand to cover the other three by the year 2000,"
\nSomchai Phakaphasvivat, a respected economist and a professor at
\nBangkok's Thammasat University, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
"We're now going far beyond AFTA which covers trade. We're
\nmoving towards the free flow of services and towards more
\ninvestment cooperation," he said.<\/p>\n
"We're also expanding from economic cooperation towards
\npolitical cooperation as well as cooperation on social issues
\nsuch as human resources," Somchai added.<\/p>\n
At the Bangkok summit the seven leaders agreed in principle to
\naccelerate the launching of the AFTA by slashing tariffs on a
\nbroad range of products to zero percent by the year 2003.<\/p>\n
But the December meeting also gave a brief glimpse of the
\ndepth of potential divisions between the seven, in particular
\nbetween the larger members who still have large, politically-
\nsensitive agricultural sectors.<\/p>\n
Indonesia stunned its colleagues by announcing it was refusing
\nto lower tariff walls on 15 key farm products, casting a pall
\nover the summit and illustrating the fundamentally competitive
\nnature of their economies.<\/p>\n
The row was patched up, for the time being at least, with the
\nagreement in principle to cut tariffs on most items to zero
\npercent by the year 2003, but with "flexibility" allowed in the
\nimplementation of the cuts.<\/p>\n
ASEAN officials say there is likely to be some hard bargaining
\nwhen it comes to nailing down just how flexible they are going to
\nbe in moving towards the removal of protection for sensitive farm
\nproducts including rice.<\/p>\n
"It's the nature of the economies in this region, they're not
\ncomplementary," Chaiwat Khamchoo, chairman of international
\nrelations at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
"On the surface the leaders make a display of unity but in
\npractice they are very competitive with each other," he said.<\/p>\n
"I didn't see much in concrete terms (emerge from the December
\nsummit) except the display of cooperative spirit. Many things
\nwere left open," he said.<\/p>\n
But others see ASEAN's flexibility and willingness to
\ncompromise to accommodate all as one of its core strengths.
\n"ASEAN is more flexible compared with the European Union and
\nASEAN has achieved more than promised because of its
\nflexibility," Somchai said. "The dangers are lessened because we
\nhave more flexibility."<\/p>\n
The seven did agree to open up service industries and an
\nagreement on intellectual property cooperation, including the
\nsetting up of an ASEAN patent and trademark office, should spur
\nthe development of a high-technology sector in the region.<\/p>\n
The leaders also endorsed a proposal by Singapore Prime
\nMinister Goh Chok Tong to introduce cooperation between the
\ngroup's central banks to withstand currency speculation through
\nrepurchase arrangements.<\/p>\n
As well as some progress towards greater economic cooperation,
\nthe December summit saw the leaders of the seven ASEAN countries,
\nas well as those of the group's three prospective members,
\nsigning a treaty turning the whole of southeast Asia into a
\nnuclear weapons-free zone.<\/p>\n
ASEAN officials said the nuclear weapons ban, dreamed about
\nfor decades, could finally be implemented because of the end of
\nthe Cold War and, among other things, the withdrawal of U.S.
\nforces from bases in the Philippines.<\/p>\n
But the end of the Cold War has given rise to new security
\nconcerns which ASEAN is keen to address.<\/p>\n
In July 1993 the group set up the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)
\nwhich is officially billed as a multilateral consultative forum
\naimed at promoting security in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n
Among those who join ASEAN for the annual ARF meetings are
\nChina, Russia, the United States, Japan, the European Union,
\nSouth Korea, Australia and Canada and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
ASEAN officials are reluctant to single out China as the
\nregion's looming security worry but two ASEAN members, the
\nPhilippines and Vietnam, have potentially serious overlapping
\nterritorial claims with China in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n
"With the gradual withdrawal of the U.S. from the region we're
\nfacing the challenge of a power vacuum," Somchai said.<\/p>\n
"We're afraid either China or Japan will fill that vacuum.
\nASEAN needs a multilateral approach, a united front in political
\nterms to face the vacuum," he said.<\/p>",
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