Australia wants to join East ASEAN Growth Area

Australia wants to join East ASEAN Growth Area

MANILA (AFP): Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said yesterday that he hoped Australia's Northern Territory could become part of the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) envisioned between Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

During a meeting with President Fidel Ramos, Evans also discussed the creation of more business links between the Northern Territory city of Darwin and the southern provinces of the Philippines and further Australian investment in this country.

A palace statement quoted Evans as telling Ramos that the thrust of the northern territories was now towards the Southeast Asian nations, just as the southern Philippines was looking south, towards the same area, in line with the EAGA.

The Philippines is one of six member countries of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a non-military grouping. Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are the other members.

"We think there's room for northern Australia to be part of EAGA. We are intrigued by this concept, we want to be part of it," Evans told a press conference earlier.

Evans, who had been on a five-day visit to the Philippines, also stressed the need to find such complementarities between the Australian city of Darwin and the southern portion of Mindanao, noting that Darwin was closer to Davao, Mindanao's main trading city, than it was to Canberra.

He said the Darwin Committee, an Australian-commissioned group, would remain in this country to look into expanding economic relations with Southeast Asia.

Evans, who earlier toured growth areas in Mindanao as well as the Subic free port in the northern Philippines, agreed that the Philippines had greatly improved as a site for foreign investment.

"Now the rest of the world is taking notice and Australia is not an exception. We want to be part of the action," he said.