ASEAN ministers end trade meeting with few results

ASEAN ministers end trade meeting with few results

SIEM REAP, Cambodia (Reuters): Southeast Asian economics ministers wrapped up a two-day informal meeting on Friday after exchanging views on weathering the chillier global economic climate and offering tax concessions to poorer members.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in the northern Cambodian town of Siem Reap came up with few concrete agreements, however, and was mainly a chance for member countries to discuss strategy.

"There was coordination and an exchange of views on the recent economic developments in the world, like the slowdown of the U.S. economy and so on, and how they impact direct investment in the areas of ASEAN," Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh told reporters on Friday.

"We tried to define our common strategy to help attract foreign investment into ASEAN as a whole, as a grouping, not just as separate countries."

He said ministers had also discussed at length the implementation of the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement signed last year in Singapore.

The agreement aims to develop information technology skills in the region and help the newer, less developed countries of ASEAN -- Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos -- catch up with the original six member countries technologically.

ASEAN's six original members are Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

On Thursday, the ministers announced tax concessions on goods exported from the four newest and poorest members to the six original member countries.

Thai Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik told a news conference on Friday that the ministers had endorsed six projects, mostly pertaining to information technology, proposed at their last meeting in October 2000.

The projects included environmental protection training, information-sharing among engineers in ASEAN member countries, developing industrial standards, creating software for use in the Greater Mekong subregion and sharing resources to create a satellite image archive and environmental study.

"The ministers urged the early implementation of the six projects, which should be shepherded and coordinated by the proposing countries," Adisai said.

Progress on the projects will be measured at a meeting in Brunei in November, he added.

Adisai also said the group supported China's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well the efforts of three ASEAN member countries to join.

"The ministers welcomed the impending accession of the People's Republic of China and supported the acceleration of the accession process for Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam," he said. "We hope China is in the WTO as soon as possible."

Chinese Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng said negotiations were in the final stages and he did not expect the United States to attempt to delay or halt China's bid following the spy plane standoff last month.

"It will not depend on the attitude of individual countries. Rather, it should be subject to the multilateral trade negotiations and only by the multilateral negotiations can we achieve the final result," he said.

Economic ministers from six ASEAN nations were joined by their counterparts from China and South Korea in Siem Reap, home of the fabled Angkor temples, for the informal retreat.

Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia sent deputy officials, as did Japan.

China, South Korea and Japan are part of the so-called "ASEAN plus three" umbrella, which has been discussing the creation of an East Asian economic community that could eventually lead to a formal regional grouping along the lines of the European Union.