Businesses vow to support ASEAN govts for free trade
Businesses vow to support ASEAN govts for free trade
JAKARTA (JP): The business sector of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is committed to helping the ASEAN
governments make free trade in the region a success.
Executives of the ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(ASEAN-CCI) issued a joint communique after their meeting here
Thursday, reaffirming their support for trade liberalization in
the region.
"The ASEAN-CCI reaffirms its support for the liberalization of
trade that is taking place under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)
arrangement," the communique said.
It further said that the ASEAN-CCI will be restructured to
make it more flexible and able to hold more effective dialogs at
all levels with the ASEAN governments.
ASEAN includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
When opening the ASEAN-CCI's meeting, President Soeharto
invited members' participation in the decision-making and
implementation of programs adopted by ASEAN.
"In its participation, ASEAN-CCI executives may give input to
their respective governments on issues that require their
consideration before the policy adoption," Soeharto said.
To prepare the region for free trade, the ASEAN-CCI said it
will emphasize enhancing business collaboration and cross-border
investment among the ASEAN business community.
The chambers also supported the ASEAN government-sponsored
sub-regional development centers -- including the Indonesia-
Malaysia-Thailand growth triangle, Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand
growth triangle and Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines
growth area -- which it believes will improve cross-border trade
and investment.
"The Vietnamese business delegation proposed that their
country be involved in such regional groupings," said Aburizal
Bakrie of Indonesia, the new chairman of the ASEAN-CCI, replacing
Razali Johari of Brunei.
The ASEAN-CCI also decided to focus its attention in the
agriculture and food, capital goods and tourism sectors to
improve production and service capability in the region.
Studies
The grouping assigned Indonesia's and Malaysia's chambers to
undertake a study on capital goods, which it believes to be the
central feature among the ASEAN countries, in view of high
imports of such goods as reflected in the trade deficits faced by
most regional countries.
It also assigned Vietnam's and Thailand's chambers to conduct
a study on the food and agricultural sectors, while Singapore's
and the Philippines' chambers have been assigned to study
tourism.
In addition to the three sectors, the ASEAN-CCI established
seven working groups to focus on infrastructure, services,
industry and small enterprises, investment, intellectual property
rights and transportation.
It also sounded out a possibility of expanding its dialog
partners. These currently include chambers from Australia,
Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States.
Aburizal said Pakistan's chamber has expressed an interest in
becoming an ASEAN-CCI dialog partner.
"We have assigned Malaysia's chamber to prepare a framework of
cooperation between ASEAN-CCI and Pakistan's chamber," Aburizal
said. (rid)