Japan vows more help for newer ASEAN members
Japan vows more help for newer ASEAN members
SINGAPORE (AFP): Japan on Saturday pledged to step up assistance to the newer ASEAN members to help boost their competitiveness as the Southeast Asian grouping pursues plans for a free trade area by 2018, officials said.
ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino said the grouping's cooperation with Japan addressed the issue of helping Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam improve participation in the proposed ASEAN Free Trade Area.
"With growing economic integration in ASEAN and the expansion of ASEAN itself, we need to pay particular attention to the needs of the newer members of ASEAN in order to help them integrate more speedily into the AFTA process," he said at a news briefing.
"The focus of cooperation between ASEAN and Japan addresses that area of cooperation where we would like to build up the capacity of the newer members," he said.
Japan's vice minister for international trade and industry Hisamitsu Arai met his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the last day of the economic ministers' meeting to discuss progress in improving industrial cooperation and development assistance.
"It is important to develop not only the 'hard' aspects of infrastructure but also 'soft' aspects such as human resources development and institutional development to improve the investment and business environment" among the newer members, Arai said at the meeting.
Assistance to the four members would be discussed by Japan with other international agencies such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, he added.
ASEAN hopes to open up trade in Southeast Asia by 2018. But under an agreement with Australia and New Zealand, it is also looking into the possibility of establishing the free trade area by 2010.
Japan would pursue efforts with ASEAN to expand business opportunities for small and medium-scale enterprises by sending high-level experts, Arai said.
He called for a review of anti-monopoly laws and bankruptcy laws that formed the foundation of economic activities, and "ensure the effective enforcement" of such rules to boost economic cooperation.
Under the ASEAN-Japan industrial cooperation, Japan is helping the grouping develop expertise in sectors the Japanese are strong in, such as the automotive, consumer and chemical industries.
The other ASEAN members are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
The new ASEAN member countries "are still on the way to economic development, and need to move forward with the institution of market economies as platforms for development," Arai said, adding that Japan intends to help with development and infrastructure projects.
Arai also raised the possibility of an investment agreement between ASEAN and Japan, and discussed boosting industrial cooperation.
But in order to make Japan's support effective, there would have to be a "stronger liaison" with other development programs in the region and with international institutions such as the Asian Development Bank, Arai said.