ASEAN to gain from expanded membership
JAKARTA (JP): ASEAN will gain immeasurably from the impending expansion of its membership but there will be formidable problems, a seminar concluded yesterday.
"The addition of three new countries will make ASEAN more representative of Southeast Asia. This will give it a stronger voice in international forums where issues affecting the region are discussed," Robert Teh, a senior officer of the ASEAN Secretariat's Bureau of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), said in a statement concluding the three-day seminar.
The seminar, titled Enhancement of Trade and Investment Cooperation in Southeast Asia: Opportunities and Challenges towards ASEAN-10 and Beyond, was organized by the ASEAN secretariat and the United Nations Economic Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and is expected to admit Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in the middle of the year.
Delegations from the ten countries included government officials and businessmen.
Teh said that beyond the political advantages, an expanded ASEAN would gain considerable leverage in enhancing its global competitiveness.
"This will gradually become evident when Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are closely integrated with the economies of the other ASEAN members," he said.
Speakers said ASEAN would also face significant challenges from expanded membership and that the most serious might be a widening gap between the more developed and lesser developed countries.
"But we take comfort from the findings of the seminar that the enhancement of trade and investment cooperation in Southeast Asia may provide the solution to the problem," Teh said.
Mari Pangestu, the executive director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), who moderated a discussion at the seminar's final session yesterday, said there would be no direct impact on the economies of the existing members because of the expansion.
"But we have to see them in the way we see the Chinese economy," she said.
She said similarities were that labor and natural resources make them competitors to most existing ASEAN members in attracting foreign investments.
But if the economies could compliment each other they could generate ASEAN economic growth and facilitate economic cooperation. she said.
She said the three countries were potential future markets for existing member countries.
For Indonesia, with a better economy, they could become markets industrial products. "As we are more industrialized than them, we can, for example, export our spare parts and automotive products, garments, consultancy and management services," she said.
She said that because of their less developed economies the three countries had some catching-up to do to emulate the economies of the existing ASEAN members. (bnt)