Ministers to launch work on ASEAN's economic vision

Ministers to launch work on ASEAN's economic vision

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Southeast Asia's freewheeling economies will launch talks this weekend on devising a comprehensive agenda to speed up economic cooperation and enhance their niche in international trade, a senior official said yesterday.

"We will for the first time devise a vision for ASEAN. We cannot live day to day because the world is changing so fast around us and we better optimize our vast potential," Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz told reporters.

Rafidah said the six-member ASEAN economic ministers would hold their first informal meeting at Malaysia's Genting Highlands Awana resort on Friday and Saturday to work on a theme for the long-term economic vision for the grouping.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- already has a set of programs to enhance economic cooperation, including a mechanism to achieve an Asian Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 15 years.

"The theme for ASEAN's long-term vision will have to be looked at from the standpoint of the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks, the ASEAN free trade area or AFTA and other regional linkages," Rafidah said.

She said there was no deadline as such for the completion of a blueprint for ASEAN's economic vision but "hopefully, we can arrive at a common theme for presentation at the next ASEAN government leaders summit in Bangkok next year."

The last ASEAN summit held in Singapore in January 1992 agreed to cut tariffs on intra-ASEAN trade in manufactured, capital and processed agricultural goods to between zero percent and five percent by 2008.

The ASEAN area, which has a population of around 330 million, is the world's fastest growing region. Nearly 60 percent of ASEAN's exports go directly to industrial countries.

Officials said the ministerial meeting was expected to discuss proposals to speed up the implementation of AFTA.

Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Yeo Cheow Tong said on Friday that the 15-year time-frame set for AFTA had been superseded by the recent signing of the Uruguay Round accord in Marrakesh, Morocco.

"Given this new backdrop, it does not make sense for AFTA to stick to its original time frame," Yeo said.