ASEAN states go ahead with liberalization plan

ASEAN states go ahead with liberalization plan

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries
concluded on Friday the eighth transportation ministers annual
meeting here, vowing to liberalize the movement of people and
goods within the region.

At the end of the two-day meeting, the ministers produced a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) on air freight services, which
has been hailed as the first step toward the full liberalization
of air freight services in the ASEAN region.

Indonesian Minister of Transportation Agum Gumelar said that
the MOU allowed the designated airlines of each ASEAN member
country to operate all cargo services up to 100 tons weekly with
no limitations on frequency and aircraft types.

"The results of the meeting will ensure and accelerate the
mobility of people and goods within ASEAN countries, which could
later boost trade, investment and tourism in the region," Agum
told a press conference here.

Also attending the press conference were ministers from other
ASEAN countries, including Ling Liong Sik from Malaysia, Hla
Myint Swe from Myanmar, Zakaria Sulaiman from Brunei Darussalam
and Yeo Cheow Tong from Singapore.

In their two-day meeting here, the ministers also agreed to
simplify procedures on the movement of dangerous goods within the
ASEAN member countries.

Meanwhile, an official at the Ministry of Transportation
acknowledged that in the past, procedures and requirements for
the movement of dangerous goods within ASEAN were complicated,
inhibiting the movement of such goods.

An example of goods categorized as dangerous are explosives.

So for the sake of accelerating the establishment of a free
trade area, the procedures must be simplified, said Kalalo
Nugroho, head of law and international cooperation at the
ministry.

"It includes the scrapping of unnecessary documents," said
Kalalo said.

However, the agreement could not be immediately implemented as
the ASEAN countries still need time to draft new regulations
before the agreement takes effect.

The theme of this year's transportation ministers meeting
focused on facilitating an Asian Free Trade Area (AFTA) within
the region.

AFTA was launched in January this year, with ASEAN founding
nations like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand lowering their tariffs on a
wide range of products traded among them to below 3 percent.

This year's meeting was also the first meeting between ASEAN
and China's transportation ministers. China was represented by
its minister of communications, Huang Zhendong.

The involvement of China in this year's ASEAN transport
ministerial meeting was a follow-up of the ASEAN and China Summit
in Brunei in November 2001.

In the summit, ASEAN and China agreed to set up a free trade
area within 10 years, which could give birth to a market of 1.8
billion consumers and create the largest free trade block in the
world.