ASEAN asked to increase trade in Indonesia

ASEAN asked to increase trade in Indonesia

SINGAPORE (AFP): Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon on Tuesday called on ASEAN members to increase trade and investments in Indonesia in order to boost its recovery efforts.

Amid Indonesia's fluid political situation, the "main problem" there remained economic, Siazon told reporters.

"For the ASEAN the best solution is to have more trade with Indonesia, have more investments... if and when we are asked individually or collectively to support a process, then certainly we will be prepared to help," he said, citing ASEAN's assistance to East Timor on the request of Jakarta and the United Nations.

Siazon was on an official visit to Singapore where he met Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and his counterpart Shanmugam Jayakumar.

The Philippines minister declined comment on Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's call on his Security Minister and former armed forces chief General Wiranto to resign.

"The internal processes of the Indonesian government, like a decision by the President to request a minister to resign is something (in) which no ASEAN government would want to be involved," he said.

Two reports released Monday, one by a domestic human rights inquiry and one from the United Nations, accused the Indonesian armed forces of direct involvement in the violence that destroyed East Timor after the territory voted last year for independence.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippine, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Intra-regional trade is once more picking up after being stalled by the regional financial crisis which struck in mid- 1997.

Indonesia was among the countries hardest hit by the crisis, which helped force longstanding strongman Soeharto out of office and has triggered unrest in various parts of the archipelago.