Asean, ABAC sign pact on private-public tieup

The economic ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have decided to enlist the services of the region’s private sector to make sure that the goals set in the blueprint for the accelerated Asean economic integration by 2015 will be met according to schedule.

ASEAN economic ministers and the leaders of the Asean Business Advisory Council (ABAC) signed a joint undertaking on Friday formalizing the region’s private-public partnership in working for the realization of the envisioned Asean Economic Community (AEC).

The signing of the joint undertaking was proposed by Trade Secretary Peter B. Favila and was done as a side event to the 39th Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) meeting at the Shangri-la Hotel in Makati.

Favila, in his address to open the AEM meet, noted that “we still need to secure a more formal buy-in of the private sector into our shared objectives.”

“We could perhaps ask them (ABAC members) to start with a joint ASEAN advocacy and awareness campaign, as mentioned in the implementation portion of the blueprint, besides the other deliverables it specifies,” Favila said.

He said the forging of the joint undertaking with the private sector will be one of the achievements of the AEM Manila meeting that they will report to the region’s heads of state at the Singapore ASEAN Summit in November.

Favila said all the loose ends of the AEC blueprint should be tied down during this AEM meet so that the declaration stating that the document is being adopted by the ASEAN leaders can be finalized also in time for the Singapore summit.

The declaration, Favila said, will say that “therefore leaders adopt this blueprint and therefore leaders instruct ministers and officials to implement it immediately.”

He said the modality for the trade in services liberalization in the region has been agreed upon.

The companion document of the blueprint containing the strategic schedule has outlined the deliverables for 2008, and Favila said these are doable.

With this, Favila said each country should have a high scorecard for the implementation phase through the exercise of diligence in the domestic processes, including the elimination of bureaucratic red tape.

“To the extent that we can iron out these kinks, all of us ASEAN member-countries can reap benefits of timelier implementation of our programs. And this will lead to greater credibility for ASEAN,” he said.