Asean countries wary of being overtaken by China, India
Chim
By IANS
Sunday November 18, 05:36 PM
Singapore, Nov 18 (DPA) The Association of South-East Asian Nations
(Asean) must complete economic integration in the next three to five
years or China and India would bypass the region, the bloc's trade
ministers said Sunday.
Leaders of the 10-member Asean are scheduled to sign a blueprint for
economic integration by 2015 during their annual summit in Singapore
this week.
'Either Asean gets into the act or (economic) integration will bypass
Asean and will involve new players like China and India and other
emerging economies,' Singapore Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang said ahead
of the leaders' summit.
'The thinking is that Asean has this window of opportunity in the next
three to five years to get this economic integration done, so as to be
able to compete with India and China,' he added.
Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangetsu added that while creating a
free trade zone among Asean members presents difficulties and
challenges, the region needed to act now to be able to compete.
'We cannot stop the clock,' he said. 'We need to make ourselves more
competitive.'
Asean groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, said Asean
can and should be an example to the group's neighbours of how economic
cooperation can improve regional integration.
'Asean is uniquely positioned to act as de facto regional hub of wider
economic cooperation and integration within East Asia and eventually
across Asia as a whole,' he told delegates at the Asean Business and
Investment Summit.
Kuroda said economic cooperation and integration was important for the
region's sustainable development, noting that bridging the development
gap between Asean countries would continue to be a key challenge.