ASEAN free trade plan on schedule despite turmoil

ASEAN free trade plan on schedule despite turmoil

HONG KONG (Dow Jones): A top official of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations said yesterday that the Asian economic
crisis won't derail its plan to set up a regional free trade zone
by the year 2003.

"(The) ASEAN has, at the highest level, strongly reaffirmed
its commitment to regional economic integration and open
regionalism, to keeping the ASEAN Free Trade Area on track and on
schedule," Rodolfo C. Severino Jr., Asean Secretary-General, said
at an international conference in Hong Kong on Thursday.

He said AFTA's completion, scheduled for Jan. 1, 2003, "will
bring to reality a market of half a billion people and thus an
even more attractive investment site for serious long-term
investors."

Severino said since the founding of Asean 31 years ago, "no
disaster has hit the countries of Southeast Asia with such
widespread impact as the financial crisis." In a bid to help
prevent future crises, Asean finance ministers have decided to
establish an economic monitoring mechanism to keep track of
capital inflows, the operation of their banking system and their
macroeconomic indicators.

The ASEAN official also called on the international community
to help Indonesia, the most populous and an influential member of
Asean, which has been ravaged by financial and political turmoil
in recent months.

"I believe that the international community needs urgently to
get behind Indonesia in its struggle to strengthen and stabilize
its currency, revive its economy, reduce inflation, hold back the
rise in unemployment, and cushion the poor.... Such support would
help restore investor confidence in Indonesia's future and
encourage that country in the political and economic reforms that
it has started to undertake," Severino said.