MAP raises awareness for ASEAN integration

MANILA, Philippines - The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) has formed a committee that will help the government and the business community prepare for the opportunities and risks of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economic integration.

The MAP has created the ASEAN Integration Committee (AIC) to raise the awareness of the business community sector on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) as well as country branding efforts.

The AIC headed by Junie del Mundo has a two-fold mandate: to conduct an information drive and consultations with businesses and to push country branding initiatives.

The AIC will likewise implement activities under the MAP-ASEAN Business Advisory Council Agreement from this year onwards.

The AIC is part of MAP’s Economic Development Cluster, a grouping of other committees on trade and development, working on ways to create an environment conducive to promoting rapid, inclusive, and sustained economic growth.

“AIC captures MAP’s commitment to operationalize our thrust to help build the foundation for economic growth through relevant, timely and private sector-focused offerings,” MAP president Melito Salazar, Jr. said.

Among the activities planned to help the government and the businesses sector prepare for the ASEAN’s unified market is to conduct a series of fora on the AEC and its impact on the country.

The MAP is set to hold its first AEC forum next month.

Earlier, Salazar said the group intends to come up with a master plan that would contain strategies on how businesses could be competitive for the AEC.

Even as the master plan is being prepared, Salazar noted that the country is not ready for the AEC which would become a reality by 2015.

The AEC would transform the ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labor as well as flow of capital.

The MAP’s masterplan is eyed for release by September.

The MAP is composed of chief executive officers, chief operating officers and other top management practitioners from the largest local and multinational companies operating in the country.