ASEAN leaders, businessmen to hold meeting in Bali

ASEAN leaders, businessmen to hold meeting in Bali

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Southeast Asian political and business leaders will gather in
Nusa Dua, Bali from Oct. 4 to Oct. 7 in a bid to boost
government-private sector cooperation, and attract investment to
the region.

Also expected to attend the business summit, titled
Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) Business and
Investment Summit (ASEAN-BIS), are leaders and businessmen from
Japan, China, South Korea and India, said the chairman of the
organizing committee, Tanri Abeng, on Wednesday.

Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Mahathir Mohammad, the Thai PM
Thaksin Shinawatra, Singaporean PM Goh Chok-Tong, Philippines'
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Vietnamese PM Phan Van Khai,
Chinese PM Wen Jiabao and Indian PM Shri Atas Bahari Vajpayee, as
well as President Megawati Soekarnoputri, have agreed to attend
the forum.

The first ASEAN-BIS will precede the ninth ASEAN Summit
scheduled for Oct. 7 to Oct. 8 on the island.

About 1,000 businessmen are expected to gather for the first
forum, according to Tanri.

The Bali summit was agreed upon by ASEAN leaders during the
seventh summit in Brunei Darussalam in November 2001, where they
also established the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC)
to plan the summit.

Asked whether Tuesday's bombing at the luxury JW Marriott
Hotel in Jakarta would affect the business summit, Tanri said he
remained optimistic that the terrorist attack would not deter
participants from coming to the forum.

"Of course it will affect the summit. But businessmen like
challenges," he said.

Also during the press conference, ASEAN-BAC's chairman Rudy J.
Pesik said the business summit would also review ASEAN's
attractiveness for investment following the implementation of the
ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

"AFTA means that each of the ten ASEAN members is seen as a
'province' of ASEAN," said Rudy. "Thanks to AFTA, investors can
establish a business in one ASEAN country, but can sell their
products to the other nine countries free of import duties."

AFTA, which aims to forge the region into a single market of
500 million consumers, come fully into force in 2003 when the six
original ASEAN members -- Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Thailand and Brunei Darussalam -- cut import duties
on almost all manufacturing products to between zero and five
percent.

The new ASEAN members -- Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos
-- are scheduled to implement the agreement in 2008.

Meanwhile, in Manila ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong
said on Wednesday that ASEAN leaders will press ahead with the
Oct.7-8 summit in Bali despite renewed security concerns
following a deadly car bomb attack in Jakarta.

"We are all committed to the ASEAN meeting in Bali, so we will
go," Ong was quoted by Associated Press as saying. "We just have
to be very careful."