ASEAN CCI want active private sectors

ASEAN CCI want active private sectors

JAKARTA (JP): The ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(ASEAN CCI) has called on private sectors to be more active in
influencing their governments to establish an integrated economy
in Southeast Asia.

The president of ASEAN CCI, Aburizal Bakrie, said yesterday at
the chamber's four-day annual meeting that stronger regional
economic integration was needed because of rapid global economic
changes and the region's dynamism.

"The ASEAN economy is continuously awakening to its new
glorious era as part of the Asia-Pacific's economic vitality," he
said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are
expected to join this year.

Aburizal said the group must increase intra-ASEAN trade and
investment to accelerate the realization of economic integration
and to strengthen ASEAN's sense of community.

He said ASEAN CCI had to apply multilateral approaches in
addition to regional approaches to avoid one-sided trade and
investment.

He said more effective, nonjudgmental public decisions which
were in business community's and society's best interests needed
to be made.

Aburizal also encouraged private sectors to aggressively seek
foreign direct investment and non-ASEAN businesses to participate
in the ASEAN economy, in order to integrate ASEAN in the global
market.

"But we do not want our market to be dictated and intimidated
by others," he said.

ASEAN's secretary-general, Setyanto P. Santosa, called on
Indonesia to create a more favorable climate for business because
ASEAN free trade was approaching.

ASEAN, under the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement (AFTA), is
committed to free trade by 2003 under a common effective
preferential tariff scheme.

Setyanto said improvements must be made in all sections of
government and businesses to prepare for AFTA.

Indonesia's annual export growth for 1995-1996 of between 13
and 14 percent was still much lower than other ASEAN nations like
the Philippines where exports rose between 60 and 70 percent over
the same period, he said.

Several forms of partnership between ASEAN countries were
proposed at yesterday's meeting, including cooperation in the
tourism and telecommunications industries.

ASEAN CCI's chairman for infrastructure and tourism, Dolf
Latumahina, said agreements were made between Indonesia and
Singapore and other countries to promote Indonesia's eastern
islands for tourism.

Other proposals included cooperation in the cellular telephone
industry to standardize the cost of telephone services, Dolf
said. (02)