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.