Deeper integration: ASEAN to declare single market
The Southeast Asian bloc, a market of about 600 million people, had set 2015 as a deadline for integrating the region’s vast economies into a single European Union-style market. PHOTO: AFP
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will officially call itself a single market by year’s end, but big things like seamless travel within the 10-nation bloc would only come in 2020, said Malaysia’s Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed.
“We don’t have complete integration or harmonisation yet, but 2015 is laying the stage for bigger things to come,” he said. The Southeast Asian bloc, a market of about 600 million people, had set 2015 as a deadline for integrating the region’s vast economies into a single European Union-style market, with tariffs abolished and free movement of skilled workers.
But there is much scepticism that the targets could be met, as the bloc is made up of countries in vastly different stages of economic development. The business community has been pushing political leaders to move faster on integration, but Mustapa said the Asean model is gradual.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2015.