Do not overlook Indian Ocean economies

TOKYO: While Europe and the Americas march steadily closer to regional economic unification, and the countries of the Asia- Pacific region work out rules of trade liberalization, the nations of the Indian Ocean, the third-largest ocean on the planet, have received little attention thus far for their own attempt at regional economic integration.

Though it is little known in Japan, there is a league of Indian Ocean countries, called the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), that is working for economic cooperation and freer trade.

India conceived the idea after its bid to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fell short, leaving it at sea in its quest to be part of a regional trade bloc. In the mid-1990s, India first proposed the founding of an Indian Ocean confederation to South Africa, which had just renounced its policy of apartheid and was finally emerging from the isolation imposed on it by the international community. Australia, which was looking to expand its economic activities to the west, soon expressed interest in the bloc.

The IOR-ARC was created in 1997 with 14 founding members, including Singapore, Indonesia, Yemen and Kenya. Later, Thailand, Iran, the United Arab Emirates.

More than 1.6 billion people live in the 19 member countries, accounting for 28 percent of the global population. But combined they generate less than 6 percent of the world's gross national product. More than half of the people in the world who are mired in extreme poverty, as defined by the United Nations, live in this region.

In September 2000, the UN Millennium Summit called for cutting in half the number of people living below the poverty line- defined as a dollar per day-by 2015. Lifting the standard of living in this area would do a lot to help achieve that ambition.

Unfortunately, the members of the IOR-ARC have often been at odds over membership and management issues. India, for instance, refused to allow Pakistan into the alliance. Consequently, it has made little headway in promoting economic cooperation among the members, its principal mission.

But the third ministerial meeting of the body, held in April in Muscat, Oman, achieved some significant accomplishments. Cooperative agreements were worked out in the areas of shipping, fisheries and energy. The ministers also hammered out specific targets to aim for, such as the standardization of customs procedures.

The meeting marked an important first step toward closer regional cooperation. The group should now proceed step by step, starting with easy goals and focusing on one concrete objective at a time.

The wide disparity in economic power and sophistication among the members, however, will make it difficult for them to move in tandem. Singapore's per capita GNP is more than 100 times that of Mozambique.

But that is not a reason for pessimism, argues Kenneth McPherson, a former associate professor at Curtin University in Australia, who has been working for the league. He sees possibilities for more cooperation in a number of areas, including culture and education as well as economy. He says he is willing to give the association time to evolve into a full- fledged regional framework for cooperation.

Japan is involved in this alliance as one of several dialog partners, along with Egypt, Britain, France and China, among others. But its commitment has been less than absolute thus far, if the posture of the Foreign Ministry, which replaced the person in charge, is any indication.

The Indian Ocean, where many Japanese oil tankers cruise and fishing boats trawl for tuna, is of great commercial importance to Japan. The region would appear to merit a larger share of Japan's attention.

-- The Asahi Shimbun