U.S. strikes prompt ASEAN to lure investment
U.S. strikes prompt ASEAN to lure investment
HANOI, Vietnam (AP): Economic uncertainty following the terrorist attacks in America prompted Southeast Asian nations to boost their efforts to lure outside capital by acting more quickly to eliminate restrictions on foreign investment, Cabinet officials said Friday.
"There's a sense of greater urgency as a result of what happened there," said Singaporean Trade Minister George Yong-Boon Yeo. "The prospects for an early recovery have receded."
The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had intended to change their deadline for treating outside investors the same as local investors from 2020 to 2015, but the crisis in the United States prompted the six wealthiest ASEAN members to move the deadline to 2010.
The less-developed members, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, will wait until 2015.
The ASEAN states fear their already shaky investment prospects could worsen after China joins the World Trade Organization - probably within the next few months - opening the world's most populous nation even further to foreign investors who have been clamoring for more access.
ASEAN hopes to create a unified investment zone by breaking down bureaucracies and red tape that stifle trade, and ministers said each member would be looking at its own rules and laws to liberalize them.
"If it's restraining the private sector, we have to eliminate it," Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz told a news conference. "We need to do it in a hurry, because the world won't wait for ASEAN."
Aziz noted that some of the nations have already exceeded ASEAN's goals and others need to catch up.
ASEAN's fears about China's accession to the Geneva-based WTO, which sets global trade rules, have been aggravated recently by economic slowdowns in all the world's major economies, which will dampen demand for the exports that are the backbone of many Asian economies.
The hijacking of four U.S. passengers jets, two of which were flown directly into New York's World Trade Center in a suicide attack that leveled the twin towers, has jolted the world and stirred fears it could throw economies into further trouble. Yeo said that helped convince the ASEAN members to hasten their plans.
"It is not clear what the effect will be, but it could be for the worse," Yeo said.
The six ASEAN members who will treat all investors the same as of 2010 are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.