U.S. attacks cast doubt in SE Asia

U.S. attacks cast doubt in SE Asia

HANOI (AP): Southeast Asian economic ministers said Saturday
the terror attacks in America thrust major uncertainty into
global financial markets, clouding the region's outlook for
growth at a time when it already is facing challenges from the
slowing world economy and tougher competition from China.

"These events have added a new dimension to the uncertainty,"
said Rodolfo Severino, secretary-general of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, whose economic ministers were wrapping
up a summit in the Vietnamese capital on Saturday.

"Global economics is always a very uncertain enterprise, but
this has added a new element of uncertainty," Severino said
outside the meeting. "We don't know what's going to happen to oil
prices, stocks, and we don't know how long this crisis is going
to last."

ASEAN nations, including some of Asia's poorest, were already
shouldering plenty of worries before hijacked planes were flown
into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington
on Tuesday.

The simultaneous slowdown of the world's major economies --
the United States, the European Union and Japan -- already had
been cutting into demand for many of the goods that Southeast
Asia exports to wealthier trading partners. Although the economic
impact of the terror attacks has yet to be seen, nobody is
predicting it will be positive and some worry it could be quite
damaging.

And China's pending entry into the World Trade Organization --
which will open markets of the world's most populous nation --
creates a new competitive threat to ASEAN's 10 members in terms
of luring foreign investment.

Although the economic ministers here say publicly that China's
admission to the Geneva-based WTO, expected in the next few
months, presents opportunities as well as challenges, some ASEAN
delegates concede privately they worry that just about anything
their countries make can be made more cheaply by the Chinese.

To become more competitive, ASEAN is relaxing tariffs and has
speeded efforts to eliminate measures that restrict foreign
investment in its member nations. The goal is to create a unified
free trade zone that is welcoming to outside capital.

"However, we should avoid the case where globalization
benefits reach only rich countries while leaving poor nations
farther behind," Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said in
a keynote speech to the ASEAN ministers Saturday. "Let us join
hands, and together with other developing countries, strive for
equality and development of all nations."

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.