ASEAN calls for greater economic integration

ASEAN calls for greater economic integration

MANILA (Reuters): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ended four days of talks on Thursday with a renewed commitment to economic cooperation despite persistent economic and political tensions.

Fifteen long months of crisis have done nothing to quell the organization's thirst for greater integration. In fact, the group stressed that the difficult economic backdrop was a reason for even faster and greater integration than before.

"It is imperative that we maintain this course of continued integration of our economies within ASEAN, and the continued integration of the ASEAN region with the rest of the world," Philippine president Joseph Estrada told the meeting.

"We must look at this crisis as just a short-term disturbance."

Instead of resorting to protectionism to counter the worst effects of globalization, delegates to the 30th ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting accelerated the implementation of an ASEAN free trade zone to 2000 rather than 2003 and pledged to eradicate all intra-regional investment barriers by 2010.

The awkward issue of Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian deputy prime minister who was sacked last month and appeared in court recently with a neck brace and black eye, went unmentioned.

Anwar, who says he is the victim of a high-level political conspiracy, is awaiting trial on charges of corruption and sodomy.

It has become the ASEAN tradition to accept explanations for political disturbances from friends and neighbors, said Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi.

"We don't get bogged down in political debates otherwise we won't make headway on economic cooperation, and at the end of the day, economic cooperation should help to stabilize our political situation," he said.

"My only wish is that the situation becomes clear as soon as possible...but we should not be seen to be doubting our friends."

Senior economic officials and ministers spent closed sessions focused on measures to spur outside investment after hearing that foreign direct investment crashed 50 percent in 1997.

These measures will be outlined at the ASEAN summit in Hanoi in December, said secretary-general Rudolfo Severino.

He declined to say what they might include, but the general thrust is expected to build on the ASEAN Investment Area (AIA) framework.

Under the AIA, the group has committed itself to treating all member citizens as national citizens for investment purposes by January 2010, and pledged to endow most favored nation status on each other equally and immediately.

The agreement on free trade calls for the reduction of the maximum number of intra-regional exports to a tariff restriction of between zero and five percent by 2000 rather than the earlier deadline of 2003.

Data released at the meeting revealed a slide in export growth to 6.3 percent in 1997, with total exports growing faster than intra-regional exports.

Exports totaled $351.6 billion in 1997, compared with $330.6 billion in 1996.

Delegates said the figures for export growth came as a shock. For more than a decade, ASEAN has reported export growth between eight and 15 percent.

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

ASEAN also aims to have a framework in place for using each others' currencies for the settlement of trade payments within six months.