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The Address by the Honourable Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia at the Opening of the 38th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting Kuala Lumpur, 22 August 2006, centers on the acceleration of the formation of a Single ASEAN Economy or officially called the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, 5 years earlier than originally planned (2020), which will put it in line with the timetable for liberalization of the goods sector.

Follow up:

In fact, last week, the 18th of August 2006, six ASEAN countries agreed to implement Zero-Tariffs on 85% of electronic products traded among each other by January 2007, three years ahead of schedule. This six countries are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand or commonly called as the ASEAN-6, while Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam or known as CMLV in trade circles, will follow the timetable.

According to Ramon Vicente Kabigting, a director at the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry or DTI, the acceleration of the plan is “because it is a priority sector". Starting next January, “eighty-five percent of the products will cross the borders freely. This will lower costs and make the products more competitive,” he added.

Electronics is among the 12 priority sectors that the ASEAN plans to liberalize in part to achieve a Euro-style regional-economic-bloc aimed at wooing back foreign investment that in recent years has been heading to China and India. Other priority sectors scheduled for liberalization include - air travel, automotive, garments and textiles, eCommerce, healthcare, hospitality and tourism, logistics, wood-based products, and rubber and agro-based products.

All these, together, will lay down the path to the realization of the ASEAN dream - a Single ASEAN Economy and of course the future plan of creating a EURO-money for the ASEAN, but that is still far from happening, as ASEAN members are at times getting back to their protectionism attitude - which we can not blame as it is the duty of each of our governments to protect our countries industry and people’s interests - but this protectionism is slowing down many of the projects of the ASEAN.

Hope is not lost however, as a reminder, earlier this year, the ASEAN finally approved the formation of the Asian Currency Unit or ACU. Yet we still have to see the implementation of the ACU in the markets of the participating countries and I can’t wait to see it in our local newspapers, stock news, and the television. We can expect rallies to come as there are those who are always anti-.

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