ASEAN moves to liberalize services
By Riyadi
KUALA LUMPUR (JP): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) moved forward toward realizing a free flow of services in the region yesterday, with member countries submitting their initial packages of service liberalization offers.
ASEAN economic ministers, who convened here for their 29th annual meeting, endorsed the offers and would bring them to the second ASEAN informal summit here in December.
The ministers also touched on the problem-ridden ASEAN Industrial Cooperation scheme and on a delicate proposal by the ASEAN Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ASEAN CCI) on capital goods cooperation.
Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Rafidah Aziz, who chaired the meeting, said the ministers agreed to adopt an alternative approach to negotiations in services to achieve a free flow of services in the region by 2020.
"We are talking about sector or subsector approaches rather than products. It is more comprehensive. This would mean that we are looking at cross-sector negotiations on a bilateral basis," Rafidah said.
But she reiterated that the ministers had not yet finalized the entire package of new approaches and instead tasked senior officials to draw up their modalities.
At yesterday's meeting, all of ASEAN's old members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- submitted their initial service liberalization offers.
Brunei's offers were on air transport and tourism, Indonesia's on maritime transport and tourism, Malaysia's on air transport, maritime transport and tourism, the Philippines' on business services and tourism, Thailand's on maritime transport and tourism and Vietnam's on telecommunications and tourism.
The economic ministers said in a joint statement that new members Laos and Myanmar had also submitted their offers. However, it was not clear in what sectors their offers were.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Production and Distribution Hartarto said Indonesia's offers on maritime transport and tourism were "the best offers for the country's economy".
"Although we offered the two sectors, it doesn't mean that we'll open them up altogether, of course not. We'll still protect our national interests," Hartarto said.
Rafidah said all offers in services involved all modes of service, including cross-border supply, consumption abroad, commercial presence and movement of labor.
"A significant number of offers involved opening up new service sectors that were not previously included in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)," she said.
The director general of foreign trade at the Indonesian Ministry of Industry and Trade, Djoko Moeljono, said all ASEAN member countries agreed to offer two more service sectors in addition to their commitments in GATS.
In GATS, Indonesia had been committed to opening five sectors; namely maritime transport, telecommunications, tourism, construction services and financial services.
In addition to the five sectors, Indonesia was also committed to opening two more service sectors: business services and air transport.
Rafidah said the initial offers submitted by member countries reflected "a move forward from having nothing to having something to sign and implement".
All member countries must implement their commitments contained in their initial packages of offers by no later than March 31, 1998.
The ministers also held consultations yesterday with executives of ASEAN CCI to obtain the views of the private sector on how to best facilitate business interaction in the region.
ASEAN CCI chairman Aburizal Bakrie said he proposed to the ministers that ASEAN governments provide both policy and financial support to ASEAN CCI-initiated cooperation in the capital goods industry.
Hartarto said ASEAN governments agreed to provide support to initiatives through government procurement policies but not in credit-line facilities.
Rafidah added that ASEAN CCI should create a database on ASEAN capital goods so that each ASEAN government knew what kind of products were available among ASEAN members.