ASEAN still short of bringing in investment

ASEAN still short of bringing in investment

MANILA (AFP): "Bold measures" instituted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to attract foreign capital have yet to bring investment levels back to their levels before the 1997 regional economic crisis, ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino admitted here Saturday.

Severino said total foreign direct investment in ASEAN countries implementing the measures had reached only US$6.2 billion in the first half of 1999 and totaled $17 billion in 1998.

This was still below the $21 billion registered in 1997 and the 18 billion dollars in 1996, Severino said.

ASEAN ministers in 1998 released "a Statement on Bold Measures" offering an array of special incentives to qualified foreign investors from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 2000 in order to generate a sharply higher inflow of investment in the wake of the crisis.

The measures included 100 percent foreign equity ownership in manufacturing sectors, certain corporate income tax exemptions and duty-free imports, domestic market access and granting of national status to investors from other ASEAN countries.

Severino said this did not show the bold measures had failed but admitted not enough investors may have heard about the measures.

"It is also a matter of selling these to potential investors," he said, adding such a selling campaign would soon be launched.

He also stressed that in the past much of the foreign direct investment in ASEAN countries came from their neighbors and since these neighbors were also recovering from the 1997 crisis, their investments were likely to be lower as well.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand were all hit hard by the 1997 currency crisis, with the other members being affected by the fall-out as well.