East ASEAN nations forge pact on common market

East ASEAN nations forge pact on common market

DAVAO, Philippines (Reuter): Four southeast Asian nations on
Saturday forged a pact to turn areas that used to be backwaters
into a bustling regional market for free trade, officials said.

Businessmen and officials from Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and
the Philippines approved resolutions at the end of the three-day
conference on the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) to cooperate in
the exploitation of the region's rich fishery and forestry
resources and promote tourism.

"This is...a giant step towards realizing an East ASEAN
(common market)," Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary
Rizalino Navarro said in a speech ending the conference held in
the southern city of Davao.

"We will all realize the huge potential for a bustling
exchange of goods. The government sector will not be in your
way," he added.

ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) includes
the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and
Singapore.

EAGA would link the oil-rich sultanate of Brunei with the
largely neglected island provinces of Indonesia, Malaysia and the
Philippines.

Deals

A total of 12 business deals worth US$118 million was signed
during the conference and hundreds of meetings on possible joint
ventures were held.

"This is a good beginning," Daim Zainuddin, the Malaysian
official in charge of a similar economic zone linking Malaysia,
Thailand, and Indonesia, told reporters.

Navarro said he would endorse eight resolutions from the
conference to develop sea and air links and ease barriers to the
movement of people in the region at a meeting of senior ASEAN
officials to be held in Manado of Indonesia at the end of the
month.

"The (ASEAN) ministers will take a hard look to break down
some of these political and territorial barriers. We will not get
in the way of the private sector in doing business," he told
reporters at the end of the meeting.

Malai Ali Othman, permanent secretary of the communications
ministry in Brunei, rejected the view that EAGA nations will find
it difficult to cooperate because they sell and produce the same
type of goods.

"The focus here is how we can complement each other," he said.
"If there is competition, that is normal."

Navarro said the presence of large official and private
delegations from Taiwan and the Northern Territory of Australia
will help EAGA get off the ground.

EAGA members also endorsed the holding of annual tourism fairs
and joint projects to develop prime tourist spots in the area.
They also decided to begin work in the area of conservation and
protection of fishery resources in the region.