The success of the Comprehensive Asian Development Plan - currently being developed as an overarching blueprint for regional cooperation and integration – is dependent upon sound research, credible policy options and rigorous academic support. This component can be provided by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), said Secretary-General of ASEAN today.

“ERIA is recognized, it is legitimate, it is effective and therefore its output should be utilised to support East Asia cooperation and integration,” said Dr Surin Pitsuwan, at working lunch with the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, H.E. Masayuki Naoshima, in Jakarta.

Describing the Development Plan as an over-arching umbrella, Dr Surin urged the visiting Japanese delegation to look at the plan and the roles of ASEAN and ERIA as a package. “ASEAN and ERIA are two key supportive pillars of the Plan,” he said.

Echoing the Secretary-General, the Japanese Minister conveyed his country’s strong support to the region and the role of the region-wide research institute. “The main pillar of our new economic strategy is to grow together with the Asian region and ERIA plays a central role in supporting this approach,” said Mr Naoshima.

Coining it as a new “Marshall Plan for Asia”, Dr Surin said that the ASEAN Secretariat was collaborating with ERIA and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the development of the plan which aims to contribute to coordinating, expediting, upgrading and expanding sub-regional initiatives and promoting private sector participation.  

The Comprehensive Asian Development Plan and the role of the public-private partnership were also on the agenda of the Secretary-General’s breakfast meeting with Nippon Keidanren, Japan’s association of business organization earlier in the day. Noting that the involvement of the private sector is crucial in building this comprehensive plan, Dr Surin said that there was “no other alternative but to engage with the private sector in terms of funding and technology. We are moving away from a model where the Governments are doing everything by themselves to one where Governments are in partnership with the private sector.”

Nippon Keidanren Chairman, Mr Fujio Mitarai, said that the organization was looking forward to cooperating on the development plan. “Keidanren, the ASEAN Secretariat and ERIA should work together in a trinity in this process,” he said. Mr Mitarai, who is also the Chairman & CEO of Canon Inc., invited the Secretary-General to visit Japan to brief Keidanren members on the Development Plan. Nippon Keidanren, which currently has some 1,600 members comprising companies, industrial associations and economic organizations, seeks to accelerate the growth of the Japanese economy and to transform it into one that is sustainable and driven by the private sector.

Both sides also highlighted the increasing trade ties within the region and Asia’s potential to be the engine of growth for the world. In 2006, almost 60 per cent of ASEAN-6 exports were shipped largely to East Asian destinations. Currently, North America and the EU account for less than 40 per cent of ASEAN-6 exports. Their share was much larger in the earlier decades.



To acquaint themselves further on the region’s physical connectivity, ASEAN Foreign Ministers together with the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, will undertake a road tour on 12 January 2010. The Familiarization Trip on ASEAN Connectivity will take them eastward along Route R9 traversing Thailand, Laos and Viet Nam. The trip will be followed  by a series of ASEAN meetings including the 3rd Meeting of the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) Council, a Special Meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) and the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat in Da Nang, Viet Nam on 13-14 January 2010.

The trip will see the high-level delegation gather in Bangkok and then fly to Savannakhet in Laos from where they will make their way in a convoy of cars to the Lao Bao Border Gate. On the Viet Nam side of the border, they will be welcomed by the leaders of Vietnamese province of Quang Tri and officials of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They will then depart for Hue, arriving at the front gate of Hue Imperial Palace where the delegation will be met by H.E Pham Gia Khiem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, and Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thien, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Thua Thien Hue Province.

After a luncheon at the Royal Theatre of the Palace, during which the Royal Court Music will be performed, the delegation will continue with the last leg of their road trip, to the city of Da Nang, their final destination.

This series of meeting is the first to take place in Viet Nam as the current chair of ASEAN. The meetings are expected to discuss ASEAN Connectivity, among other issues. The ASEAN Leaders, during the ASEAN Summit in Thailand in October 2009, had discussed the concept of ASEAN Connectivity and recognised that enhancing intra-regional connectivity would promote ASEAN centrality in the regional architecture, facilitate the building of an ASEAN Community and serve as a foundation for a more enhanced East Asian connectivity. Central to the promotion of ASEAN Connectivity are the development of physical infrastructure and multimodal transportation.


ASEAN and China have successfully concluded the Forum on China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FOCAFTA), which started yesterday in Nanning City at the Guangxi Zhuong Autonomous Region of China.

More than 300 participants – comprising high-level government officials, academicians and representatives from the private sector – from the ten ASEAN Member States and China attended the Forum, which adopted for its theme “Win-Win Results and Greater Success”. Several speeches on three topics, namely: New Starting Point: to boost trade and vitalize industries; New Opportunity: to invest mutually for economic prosperity; and New Commitment: to build more highlights of regional cooperation, were delivered in the course of the 1½ day Forum.

On future prospects of economic cooperation, three areas were mostly covered by the speakers vis-à-vis the importance of connectivity and the need for infrastructure development with emphasis at the sub-regional level; areas of NTBs in the form of TBT, SPS, standards and Conformance and customs procedures that would negate positive gains in tariff elimination; and support through business-to-business link ups and the government providing the support for the disadvantaged/vulnerable businesses affected by the liberalization process.

FOCAFTA also saw the launching of the ASEAN-China FTA Business Portal by Mr. Pushpanathan Sundram, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Cooperation, and Mr. Yi Xiaozhun, Vice Minister for China’s Ministry of Commerce, the unveiling of the Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area and the Nanning Bonded Logistics Park as well as the signing of 18 economic cooperation projects valued at US$ 4.896 billion.

Among the economic cooperation projects signed was the Memorandum of Understanding on the China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund. It can be recalled that, at the 12th ASEAN-China Summit in Cha-am Hua Hin, Thailand in October 2009, Leaders from ASEAN welcomed the initiatives of China to contribute to the promotion of infrastructure development, which included the US$ 10 billion China-ASEAN Fund on Investment Cooperation.

“The economic cooperation projects just signed have clearly demonstrated that significant role that public-private sector collaboration can play in an environment of free and open trade”, DSG Pushpanathan was quoted as saying. “No doubt, these projects would provide the necessary infrastructure support towards the successful implementation of the ACFTA”, he added.

The ACFTA comprises a market of 1.9 billion with a combined GDP of about US$ 6 trillion and a total trade volume of US$ 4.3 trillion.


A spectacular display of fireworks and a pomp celebration ceremony capped the Forum on China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FOCAFTA), held in Nanning City at the Guangxi Zhuong Autonomous Region of China on 7-8 January 2010, to mark the establishment of ASEAN-China Free Trade Area on 1 January 2010.

The Forum, themed “Win-Win Results and Greater Success”, was opened by H.E. Mr. Yi Xiaozhun, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce, and welcomed by H.E. Guo Shengkun, Secretary of the CPC Guangxi Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Guangxi. H.E. Mr. Pushpanathan Sundram, Deputy Secretary-General for the ASEAN Economic Community of the ASEAN Secretariat, also delivered a keynote speech at the Opening Ceremony.

In his speech entitled “China-ASEAN Free Trade Area: Towards an Enhanced and Enduring Trade and Economic Partnership”, DSG Pushpanathan underscored the importance of the ACFTA in demonstrating ASEAN’s and China’s positive response to the challenges, and in focusing “on seizing the opportunities presented by their trade and economic complementarities, cooperation and collaboration to become one of the success stories in regional economic integration.”

With the establishment of the ACFTA, the bigger challenge, according to DSG Pushpanathan, would be for ASEAN and China to “collectively ensure that there is a level playing field where all Parties will benefit from the FTA.” This would include the need to address trade imbalances, non-tariff barriers and other forms of import control measures to ensure that market access is “unhampered by any barriers.” He also called on businesses in the region to use all the ACFTA Agreements, i.e. Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Investment, to their full advantage.

The ACFTA, implemented and realized despite the challenges of the global financial crisis, opens up a market of 1.9 billion people accounting for a combined GDP of close to US$ 6 trillion and a total trade volume of US$ 4.5 trillion. It is ranked as the largest free trade area, in terms of market size, and third – after the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) – in terms of economic size.

For the keynote speech by DSG Pushpanathan Sundram, please click here.


This Month’s Meetings, please click here