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 Sunday.
A two-day informal meeting of economic ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is scheduled to kick off here Monday and will also feature talks with European Union 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," he told AFP.
In a summit in Bali in October, ASEAN leaders launched the first phase of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) 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 Indonesian official said some issues still needed to be worked out.
"There are still problems such as tariff differences, the problem of licensing, et cetera," he said.
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 different member countries.
The meeting between ASEAN economic ministers and EU trade commissioner Lamy on Tuesday will focus on measures to boost economic co-operation between the two regions, the Indonesian official said.
The EU has proposed the so-called Trans-Regional EU-ASEAN Trade Initiative (TREATI) as a new mechanism for economic co-operation.
But a European Commission official said Thursday that the time was not yet ripe for a free trade agreement between the EU and ASEAN.
He said while Thailand was keen on such an arrangement, other countries remained reluctant.
In 2002, the EU was Asean's second largest export market and third largest source of imports, behind Japan and the United States. EU exports to ASEAN were estimated at 40 billion euros (50 billion dollars), while EU imports from ASEAN were valued at 62 billion euros.
Once the world's fastest economic growth area, Southeast Asia still has not fully recovered from the 1997-1998 financial crisis and is also facing increased competition for foreign investment from other Asian nations, including China.
Indonesia is the current chairman of Asean, which also groups Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
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