Southeast Asian economic ministers will discuss ways to accelerate regional economic integration following free-trade arrangements with Asian giants China and India, an official said yesterday.
A two-day informal meeting of economic ministers from the 10-member ASEAN is scheduled to kick off in Jogjakarta today and will also feature talks with EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
"We [ASEAN] have to accelerate economic integration because this is necessary if we are to compete with China and India," said a member of the Indonesian delegation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Free trade agreements with China and India provide opportunities but at the same time also challenges," the official said.
In a summit in Bali in October, ASEAN leaders launched the first phase of a free-trade agreement to be fully developed with China by 2010, and signed a pact with India to set up a similar arrangement by 2016.
The leaders also signed a pact that lays the foundations for closer economic and security ties.
A key element of the pact is the ASEAN Economic Community, an effort to achieve a single market by 2020 with a free flow of goods, services and investments throughout the grouping of 530 million people.
ASEAN has given priority to integrating 11 industry sectors -- wood, rubber, automotive, textile, electronics, agriculture, information technology, fisheries, healthcare, air travel and tourism.
But the official said some issues still needed to be worked out.
ASEAN also seeks to introduce the use of regional ASEAN branding to produce competitive products and develop a "Made in ASEAN" brand for parts produced in member countries.
The meeting between ASEAN economic ministers and Lamy tomorrow will focus on measures to boost economic cooperation between the two regions, the Indonesian official said.
The EU has proposed the so-called Trans-Regional EU-ASEAN Trade Initiative as a new mechanism for economic cooperation.
But a European Commission official said last Thursday that the time was not yet ripe for a free trade agreement between the EU and ASEAN.
In 2002, the EU was ASEAN's second-largest export market and third-largest source of imports, behind Japan and the US.
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