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)