Economic Plans ‘Not Disturbed’ by South China Sea Spat

Ismira Lutfia | July 26, 2012
Jakarta Globe

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations said on Wednesday that recent tensions over a common stance on the South China Sea territorial disputes would not hinder its long-term plan to integrate member states’ economies.

“We are moving full speed ahead with the economic integration,” said Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan.

“Asean’s economy remains attractive and has not [been] disturbed by the South China Sea dispute.”

China claims nearly all of the sea, which holds key shipping lanes and is believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits, but the claims overlap those made by Asean countries Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia.

Economic integration of SE Asia DICTATORSHIPS

Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar seeking further economic integration

July 26, 2011
Xinhua

A seminar was held here on Monday among senior officials and delegates from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam who shared their experience in devising and implementing international economic integration policies to serve their countries' sustainable development.

According to Vietnam News Agency (VNA), participants agreed that their countries should promote cooperation in the sub-regional, regional and inter-regional frameworks to make the best use of opportunities and minimize challenges from international economic integration.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Doan Xuan Hung suggested the four countries continue to actively take part in international economic integration and closely coordinate to contribute to building the ASEAN community.

ASEAN retreat discusses further economic integration

February 28, 2011
Xinhua

The 17th ASEAN Economic Ministers' (AEM) Retreat has reiterated that member states would strengthen economic cooperation within the body as well as with other groupings, AEM Retreat chairwoman Mari Elka Pangestu, also Indonesian Minister of Trade, told a press conference here on Sunday.

During the retreat, which began in Vientiane, Laos, on Sunday, ministers discussed a range of issues with emphasis on the importance of ensuring the effective implementation of the ASEAN community for the body to play a central role in shaping regional economic architecture, as well as in the global context.

The economic ministers indicated that they would promote the initiative for ASEAN Integration, noting that concrete training, guidelines and recommendations provided at bilateral and regional levels for newer members of ASEAN by the more developed member states would narrow gaps among the grouping.

Mekong river can be economic heart of region: Cambodia

Friday, August 20, 2010
By Ian Timberlake (AFP)

HANOI — Nations around one of the world's great rivers, the Mekong, are tightening transport and other links but have neglected the region's very heart -- the river itself, a Cambodian minister said Friday.

At a meeting of the six countries surrounding the Mekong, Cham Prasidh said the potential of the 4,800-kilometre (2,976-mile) river has been neglected as the region develops road links and "economic corridors", which he likened to arteries.

"But we forget the heart and the Mekong River is the heart. We need to develop the heart first," he told AFP after making his suggestion to a conference of fellow ministers.

"I think this is a new concept but this is something that is going to strike them all, because we have overlooked the main thing, in the Mekong."

Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce, was speaking at the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) conference.

GMS is an Asian Development Bank-supported programme that began 18 years ago to promote development through closer economic links. Along with Cambodia it includes Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as China's Yunnan province and the Chinese Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Cham Prasidh said the Mekong should be developed for river transport to enable trade, while the livelihoods of people living along it should be enhanced.

He also proposed that agriculture around the river be developed in accordance with an ecosystem that is changing because of global warming.

The Mekong begins in the Tibetan Plateau, flows through China, along the northeastern border of Myanmar, and then marks the Thai-Lao frontier before pouring into the heart of Cambodia and ending at the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

More than 300 million people live in the area surrounding the Mekong.

Cham Prasidh said it was too soon to assess the cost of developing the Mekong River as an economic corridor but added that it would be "quite a huge project" which he hoped the Asian Development Bank and others would support.

"Actually... the transportation of all the goods through the Mekong River should be the cheapest way of transport" once it is cleared of rocks and obstacles, he said.

"By so doing we also open the door for Laos, from being a landlocked country to open it to the sea."

No other ministers mentioned the Mekong in their opening remarks, except for Thailand's lead delegate who mentioned a need for "better management" of the river.

Delegates were expected later Friday to endorse a plan for connecting regional rail lines, which Cham Prasidh said would be another cheap way of transporting goods to the Mekong nations and beyond, to other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The plan cites four possible ways of connecting the railways but it says the most viable route would stretch from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, then Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and finally up to Nanning and Kunming, largely using existing lines or those already under construction.

The only missing link on that route would be between Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh, it says, estimating a cost of 1.09 billion dollars for completion.

This does not include roughly seven billion dollars in additional funding needed to upgrade the existing lines.

By 2025, an estimated 3.2 million passengers and 23 million tonnes of freight are forecast for the completed route, the document says.

Although they are growing fast, the Mekong nations -- except for Thailand -- have the lowest per capita gross domestic product among the 10 ASEAN members.

South-East Asian countries seek economic integration

Nov 7, 2008
DPA

Hanoi - The global financial crisis might bring economic benefits for countries in South-East Asia, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday at a regional summit in Hanoi.

'The rich people in Europe, the buyers in America will not buy expensive clothes produced in Europe anymore but the cheaper goods produced in Cambodia and Vietnam,' Sen said.

Most of the other businessmen and political leaders at the summit focused on the need to integrate South-East Asian economies to create a larger market more resilient to economic shocks.

They met at the Arrawaddy-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy summit, which brings together Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam in a rivers-related regional development forum initiated by former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2003.

The vice chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce, Hoang Van Dung, said the five countries should focus on harmonizing regulations, eliminating duplicate customs inspections and creating a single regional travel card to promote tourism.

Oknha Kith Meng, president of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, said the region should expect severe economic challenges as reduced demand in their wealthy export markets made itself felt.

'These problems that we face are not of our making,' Meng said. 'However, we have to expect that our economies will be buffeted by this global storm.'

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein hailed the establishment of an East-West transit corridor to link his country's Indian Ocean coastline with Vietnam's ports on the South China Sea. Sein also said the regional development forum had played a role in encouraging Thai investment in Myanmar, which reached 4 billion dollars in the past fiscal year, which ended in March.

Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said the regional road network constructed under a framework called GMS was nearly complete but said better customs coordination and more industrial zones along the transit network were still needed.

Somchai called on forum members to enhance 'self-reliance' within the region, to create more intraregional trade and cushion the impact of the global financial crisis.

More than 350 business representatives from South-East Asia and the region's trading partners, including Japan, the United States, Russia and South Korea attended the conference.