Businessmen to up investment, trade in region
The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
President Megawati Soekarnoputri urged ASEAN businessmen to increase trade and investment activities in the region as governments pushed to liberalize trade and integrate their economies.
She also said that investors should not be deterred by the terrorism threat.
"Against this background, I am truly pleased, along with the other leaders of ASEAN, to invite and encourage the business sector to play an active role in this conducive environment ... We hope that the ASEAN business sector will be able to take a tremendous advantage from the future potential of the increasingly developing ASEAN economic market," she said on Sunday, opening the first ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (ASEAN-BIS).
The three-day summit is being held as leaders of the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gather here for the regional grouping's annual summit. Leaders of the region's major trading partners, including Japan, China, India and South Korea, are also scheduled to participate in the summit.
The grouping is also expected to endorse a framework to establish the ASEAN Economic Community in 17 years, which is to create a common market covering a population of more than 500 million that will boost trade and investment activities. It is also to boost the region's global competitiveness, particularly because China has gained much greater foreign direct investments in the past couple of years.
ASEAN will also sign agreements with Japan and India on the establishment of ASEAN Free Trade Areas (AFTA).
These efforts are to help return the region's economies to growth levels prior to the 1997 economic crisis, and to recover from its recent troubles, including the SARS outbreak and terrorist attacks.
"We would like to demonstrate that, however profound the sorrow that befell us sometime ago due to the inhumane terror act, it should not deter us from moving forward," Megawati said in response to choosing Bali as the venue for the summit.
The ASEAN-BIS is organized by the recently introduced ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC), and is to be an annual event. According to a press statement from the organizing committee, some 700 businesspeople and top corporate chiefs from various countries are attending in the event, which includes business and investment dialog sessions, deal making sessions and exhibitions.
Experts have said that ASEAN needs to be more competitive to attract foreign direct investments, not only multinational, but also intra-ASEAN investments.
"Albeit existing problems, especially in individual member country's regulations, the potential in ASEAN is tremendous," said ASEAN-BAC chairman Rudy J. Pesik.
"We have to clean out problems, although AFTA is in place -- but there are still non-tariff barriers, constraining visa regulations and other irregularities," he said.
Rudy also said that a number of business and investment memorandums of understanding are expected from the summit.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Aburizal Bakrie said creating a single market for ASEAN could be achieved between 2010 and 2015, as the business sector was ready to cooperate with the government and because intra-ASEAN trade activities were on the rise.