Asean well on its way to integrate with world economy

This assessment comes from its Secretary General Ong Keng Yong. Mr Ong believes that ASEAN is ready to compete on the global stage in areas such as goods and services and flow of capital.

When it comes to production chain, logistics and trade in services, ASEAN is still new to the game. In fact, some of its members are still struggling to keep up with ASEAN workplan on trade and services. But there is a lot more progress in other areas such as the flow of capital and investments.

Speakers at the 2007 ASEAN Business and Investment Summit believe that this is partly due to the opening up of Asian giants, China and India. Mr Ong said, “the good thing is that we are between two big giant economies. These two big giant economies have moved on the new elements of the global business, on services, logistics…so they are now forcing ASEAN to also accelerate our programmes, to open up trade in services…and other business sectors that have not been moving too fast. So we have eight years between now and 2015.

“We believe that 70-80 percent of the plan to integrate our economy in these sectors has already been accomplished. If we diligently implement what we have already settled, I think we will be 70-80 percent ready to compete on the global stage in terms of goods, services, flow of capital, investments, as well as talented people.”

The session marked the start of a three-day public-private sector dialogue with political leaders in the region. It is a way to chart the way forward fo ASEAN businesses and facilitate the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community.

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