ASEAN
Free Trade Area: Facilitating Growth
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Free Trade Area (AFTA) has made significant progress in reducing tariffs over
the past 10 years. ASEAN is now striving to extend trade agreements to Northeast Asia while simultaneously
reinforcing technological and cultural cooperation throughout the region.
"ASEAN Free Trade Area: Facilitating
Growth" was produced in its entirety by the Advertising Department of the International
Herald Tribune. It was sponsored by ASEAN. It was written by Julia Clerk, Kevin
Fore and Linda Healey.
Nations Come Together for Common Prosperity
Over the past 35 years, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has worked
hard to keep the peace and foster prosperity among its member states, according
to ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo C. Severino Jr.
Harnessing Asia's Full Digital Potential The
number of online users in the Asia-Pacific region is estimated to have grown
more than fivefold in the past few years, from 11 million in 1998 to 69 million
in 2000. To ensure that this growth results in digital opportunities throughout
the region, including the developing countries of Southeast Asia, ASEAN nations
came together in 1999 to establish the e-ASEAN Task Force.
Beyond AFTA: Where Does Northeast Asia Fit In? A former
South Korean foreign affairs minister, Han Sung Joo is
currently a professor of political science at Korea University. As
chair of the East Asia Vision Group, Mr. Han helped establish a report that was
submitted to the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and
South Korea) summit in November. In this interview, he discusses Southeast Asia's role in the increasingly
competitive global market.
Markets Move Toward Zero Rates The
Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area (AFTA) was launched in 1992
to eliminate tariff barriers among Southeast Asian countries with a view to
integrating the ASEAN economies into a single production base and regional market
of half a billion people. Over 96 percent of all ASEAN trade now falls within
the AFTA grouping.
China Seen as Spearhead of Growth Trade
between China and Southeast Asia has increased by leaps and bounds over the past decade, rising from
$8.9 billion in 1993 to more than $32 billion in 2000. Last year, the potential
for booming trade with China rose even higher as the country gained entry to
the World Trade Organization while maintaining economic growth of 7.3 percent.
Campaign Promotes Local Diversity With such
a diversity of languages, cultures and natural wonders, it may seem that the
only thing unifying the series of islands and peninsulas that lie east of India and
west of China is the name ''Southeast Asia.'' Indonesia's Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika begs to differ.
Growing Pains Won't Last
Following three years of consecutive growth, the Asian car industry is bracing
itself for a drop in sales this year. The good news is that sales are forecast
to rebound as of next year, and the long-term prospects for Asia are among the world's best.
ASEAN Marks AFTA Milestone To mark its realization, the ASEAN Secretariat organized a symposium
Jan. 31 at the Grand Hyatt in Jakarta.
Ministers Establish Sustainable Strategy Last
October, the first meeting of the ASEAN agriculture and forestry ministers and
the ministers of China, Japan and South Korea took place in Medan, Indonesia.
On the agenda was promoting cooperation in agriculture, fisheries and forestry
in view of the serious challenges facing these sectors in today's global environment.
Nations Come Together for Common
Prosperity
Julia Clerk
IHT Sponsored Sections
January
31, 2002
ASEAN: Competing Effectively San Diego Over
the past 35 years, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has worked hard
to keep the peace and foster prosperity among its member states, according to
ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo C. Severino Jr. ''It
has done this by providing a forum and a framework in which positive
relationships among the countries of Southeast Asia are formed,'' says Mr. Severino. He says that in the increasingly interconnected
global economy, ASEAN has given each member country a vital stake in each
other's stability and prosperity. He adds: ''Closer integration among the
economies of Southeast Asia in ASEAN has made them more competitive than they would otherwise
have been.''
Philippines Secretary of Trade Manuel Roxas says: ''Recent
developments in the global arena, which dampen the economic outlook for the
year 2002 in Asia, increase even more the relevance of ASEAN
in Asia.
For ASEAN, the gloomy economic prospects only present challenges that offer the
opportunity for ASEAN to work closely together. ASEAN trade initiatives, which
increase and facilitate production and movement of goods, services and
investments, would serve as engines to revive the regional economy and keep it
soaring.''
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand founded ASEAN in 1967 with a declaration that read: ''The
Association represents the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves
together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and
sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace,
freedom and prosperity.'' Nowadays - with the inclusion of Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar
and Cambodia - the 10-nation bloc represents 500 million people across a region
that spans 4.5 million square kilometers (1.7 million square miles). Its
combined gross domestic product is about $737 billion and total trade stands at
$720 billion per year. ASEAN members are involved in everything from programs
on the environment and information technology to programs to combat
communicable diseases and transnational crime. Most recently, the association
has focused on security and terrorism. According to Mr. Severino,
this cooperation and consultation among the governments of the region has
amplified the voice of each member state in international forums.
Says George Yeo, Singapore's
minister for trade and industry: ''As an integrated Southeast Asia with many
strengths and abundant resources, we can compete with China, Latin America and Eastern Europe for our fair
share of foreign direct investment.'' Mr. Yeo says
that one of ASEAN's primary strengths is its geographical position astride the world's
most important sea links and between the two huge economies of India and
China. He adds that ASEAN's independent nature stands the region in good
stead. ''We threaten no one,'' he says. As the region experiences profound
change - like China's entry into the World Trade Organization - ASEAN leaders are
reiterating the importance of integration for long-term survival and prosperity.
To this end, ASEAN has launched several significant initiatives aimed at
greater integration. Foremost among these is the Roadmap Toward
Integration of ASEAN, an umbrella framework that pulls together all of the
various liberalization and cooperation initiatives. Says Mr. Yeo: ''RIA will help ASEAN take stock of its progress and
identify gaps.''
Fresh Perspective
In an effort to discern exactly where they
stand as a region, ASEAN ministers have also commissioned a regional
competitiveness survey. Speaking of the survey, Mr. Yeo
says: ''For the first time, we are going beyond purely national calculations of
competitiveness to a regional analysis.''
According to Robert R. Teh
Jr., director for economic cooperation at the ASEAN Secretariat, the objectives
of this study include providing a fresh and independent perspective on the
group's competitiveness, as well as identifying specific industry clusters that
ASEAN can use as internationally competitive sectors.
The report also aims at generating
practical and action-oriented recommendations for individual governments to use
to support these clusters. The results of the study are expected by September. Meanwhile,
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently declared
an ''initiative for Japan-ASEAN comprehensive economic partnership.'' Although
welcomed by ASEAN members, the move is largely seen as an effort to assert Japan's
role as the dominant economic power in the region and beef up security
relations. Mr. Koizumi fell short, however, of matching China's
recent proposal for establishing an ASEAN-China free-trade area within 10 years.
The Japanese prime minister did not clarify the timing and scope for his initiative.
Experts agree that one reason for his open-ended approach is the lack of
consensus in Japan on how to go about promoting economic ties with Asian neighbors. Experts
from ASEAN and Japan have started meeting together to flesh out the proposed closer
economic partnerships. According to Mr. Severino, a
combination of the end of the Cold War, the march of globalization, the rise of
China's political and economic power, and the shifts in Japan's
position could be factors for East Asian instability. The secretary-general
says: ''ASEAN has helped maintain East Asian stability in these times of flux
by helping keep Southeast Asia stable and standing as an example of regional stability through
regional cooperation.''
Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says: ''One
of the ways to make ASEAN continue to be relevant is to make agreements binding.
But another way…is to make sure that when there is a new cataclysmic development
in the world, ASEAN knows how to respond, taking into account our cultural
diversities, the different social organizations and the different historical
antecedents.''
She concludes: ''We should look at our
common goals and merge all our differences in what we could do together in
action and not only in words. ASEAN must always be flexible, ever-changing and ever-dynamic
because the world itself is ever-changing and ever-dynamic.''