ASEAN plugs on with regional investment
ASEAN plugs on with regional investment
SINGAPORE (AFP): Southeast Asian nations agreed here Wednesday
to expand the scope of a scheme to open up their industries to
regional investors by covering related services as well.
Under an agreement which came into force in June, ASEAN
member-states committed themselves to opening up most of their
industries and granting national treatment to all investors
within the region beginning 2003.
The industries cover the manufacturing, agriculture, forestry,
fishery and mining sectors, with manufacturing to be fully opened
up by 2003.
Trade ministers of the 10 member states of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) decided Wednesday to extend the
scope of the pact to cover services "incidental" to the five
sectors.
"This is necessary because some of the services are
inextricably linked to the sectors themselves," Singapore's Trade
and Industry Minister George Yeo told a news conference after
chairing the ASEAN Investment Area Council.
The council is the policy-making body spearheading ASEAN's
effort to free up investments in the region.
The ASEAN ministers also agreed to set up a working group to
monitor the flow of foreign direct investments into the region.
Apart from investments, the ASEAN states are engaged in
efforts to open up trade within the region.
The ASEAN Free Trade Area or AFTA will begin taking shape in
2002 among the earlier members of the grouping, Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Newer members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have more
flexible deadlines in their effort to remove tariffs.
An ASEAN joint statement issued after the investment talks
said that member countries were targeting finalizing the
negotiations to open up services linked to the five sectors by
March 31, 2000.
Yeo said despite the financial crisis, which erupted in mid-
1997 and plunged the region into recession, "the will to push on
with the opening up of the ASEAN Investment Area remains very
strong.
A framework agreement on the ASEAN Investment Area signed on
October 7, 1998 requires member states to implement coordinated
investment programs and grant immediately national treatment to
ASEAN investors, with exceptions specified in a so-called
temporary exclusion list and sensitive list.
Kadin
Meanwhile in Jakarta, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (KADIN) called on the government to review its plan to
join the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 2002.
"Indonesia needs to pull back from AFTA because the current
domestic economic situation has yet to be conducive for such a
move," KADIN chairman Aburizal Bakrie was quoted by Antara news
agency as saying.
Speaking at a function marking KADIN's 31st anniversary late
Tuesday, Bakrie said that Indonesia needed more time to restore
its damaged economy before joining the AFTA scheme.
"We have to admit that impact of the current economic crisis
suffered by Indonesia is the worst among other ASEAN countries,"
Bakrie said.
He said that the government should review the plan to join the
free trade scheme of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) because such an early participation would be detrimental
to the nation.
He said Indonesia's weak economic position would not allow the
country to benefit much from the free trade zone.
"The government needs to renegotiate the plan (of entry into
AFTA)," said Bakrie.