Taken from Bernama, the Malaysian news agency, here.

Need To Form East Asian Economic Community, Says Ajit
By Salbiah Said

SINGAPORE, Sept 25 (Bernama) — Now that the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA) has virtually been realised, the time is ripe for the regional grouping to initiate an East Asian economic community (East Asian EC), says former Asean secretary-general, Tan Sri Ajit Singh.

“An East Asian EC, comprising the Asean 10+3 should be the regional grouping’s vision after the completion of AFTA,” he told Bernama here today.

“That should be Asean’s vision and the setting up of the Asean EC (Asean economic community) should be an important building block towards realising this vision”, he said in response to Bernama’s queries via e-mail.

Ajit’s views come about two weeks ahead of the ninth Asean Summit, to be held in Bali on Oct 7-8.

AFTA became a reality during his tenure as Asean’s secretary-general from 1993 to 1997.

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, in an interview with Financial Times recently said that Asean members, faced with growing competition from China and India, were likely to endorse plans for a regional common market, or the Asean economic community at the Bali Summit.

“I think the leaders will endorse this idea in Bali,” he said. “The leaders understand the need to integrate the economies, but the will to move faster is not yet clear, partly because of their own domestic considerations,” said Goh.

On the proposed regional common market, Ajit said: “With the completion of AFTA for the Asean Six (Asean 6), it was therefore very appropriate to think of an Asean EC.

“In fact I believe that we should be thinking even beyond this, of an East Asian EC comprising the Asean 10+3,” he said.

Asean groups Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Brunei (Asean 6); Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (Asean 4). The Asean 10+3 concept covers the 10 Asean countries (Asean 10) plus Japan, China and South Korea.

Ajit noted developments in Latin America for an FTA encompassing the Mercusor and the Andean Pact countries, the enlargement of the European Union and the failure of the Cancun talks made this East Asian economic community even more urgent.

“Asean has to think big and act swiftly if it is not to be bypassed by events,” he said.

On the tendency of some Asean countries to enter into FTA arrangements with third countries such as China, India and Japan, he said,”while not helpful, it indicates their exasperation with the slow speed at which Asean is moving on such issues as non-tariff barriers, services and the Asean Investment Area.”

Stressing that the plight of the Asean 4 (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) should not be ignored, he noted that although a number of initiatives had been taken, they continued to lag behind the others.

Ajit also proposed that a CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) Reconstruction Development Fund be established which could be used to provide the four-member nations the much need capital for development purposes.

“With the completion of AFTA for the Asean 6, the question arises - what next? said Ajit, who is a senior research fellow of the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya.

Indeed, the way forward is East Asia. Thus far, there have been more positive views on the developments in the region.

But what is significant is that it is now called an ‘Emerging New East Asia’, as stated by a World Bank official recently.

East Asia made significant progress during the last part of the 80’s and the early part of the 90’s. It was struck most severely by the 1997/98 financial crisis.

That was followed by the recent global turbulence on account of developments in the US and Japan. Also, by the slackening of world trade, and by the threat of terrorism and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

However, East Asia has survived and is recovering. It is now getting on the move and gaining momentum. The short-term goal for East Asia is to reach the pre-crisis level of high growth and rapid development.

Depending on the world political and economic developments, many analysts believe East Asia, once known as the Asian Tigers or the Asian miracles, is bound to surge ahead.

– BERNAMA

  

Posted on September 26th, 2003 by jl
Filed under: Regionalisation