ASEAN countries forge ahead with borderless region plan

ASEAN countries forge ahead with borderless region plan

A'an Suryana
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries
concluded on Friday the eighth transportation ministers annual
meeting in Jakarta, vowing to liberalize the movement of people
and goods within the region.

At the end of the two-day meeting, the ministers produced a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) on air freight services, which
is dubbed as the first step toward the full liberalization of air
freight services in the ASEAN region.

Indonesian Minister of Transportation Agum Gumelar said that
the MOU allowed the designated airlines of each ASEAN member
countries to operate all-cargo services up to 100 tons weekly
with no limitations on frequency and aircraft types.

"The results of the meeting will ensure and accelerate
mobility of people and goods within ASEAN countries, which could
later on boost trade, investment and tourism in the region," Agum
told a press conference here.

Also attending the press conference were ministers from other
ASEAN countries, including others Ling Liong Sik from Malaysia,
Hla Myint Swe from Myanmar, Zakaria Sulaiman from Brunei
Darussalam and Yeo Cheow Tong from Singapore.

In their two-day meeting here, the ministers also agreed to
simplify procedures on the movement of "dangerous goods" within
the ASEAN member countries.

Meanwhile, an official at the Indonesian Ministry of
Transportation acknowledged that in the past, procedures and
requirements for the movement of dangerous goods within ASEAN
were complicated, inhibiting the movement of such goods.

An example of goods categorized as dangerous are explosives.

So for the sake of accelerating the establishment of a free
trade area, the procedures must be simplified, said Kalalo
Nugroho, head of law and international cooperation at the
ministry.

"It includes the scrapping of unnecessary documents," said
Kalalo said.

However, the agreement could not be immediately implemented as
the ASEAN countries still needed time to draft new regulations
before the agreement takes effect.

The theme of this year's transportation ministers meeting is
focused at facilitating an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) within
the region.

AFTA was launched in January this year, with ASEAN founding
nations like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand lowering their tariffs on a wide range of
products traded among them to below 3 percent.

This year's meeting was also the first meeting between ASEAN
and China transport ministers. China was represented by its
minister of communications, Huang Zhendong.

The involvement of China in this year's ASEAN transportation
minister meeting was the follow-up of ASEAN and China Summit in
Brunei in November 2001.

In the summit, ASEAN and China agreed to set up a free trade
area within 10 years, which could give birth to a market of 1.8
billion consumers and create the largest free trade block in the
world.

Related photo on Page 13