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SINGAPORE
(via PLDT)—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said on
Monday that the Philippines, backed by a cooperative
private sector, is ready for an Asean Economic Community
(AEC) by 2015.
Trade
Secretary Peter Favila told reporters covering the 13th
Asean Leaders’ Summit here that the President made the
statement during a breakfast meeting with the Philippine
group in the Asean Business Advisory Council (Abac) at
the Fullerton Hotel.
Favila
said the meeting was a “free flow of discussion” on the
private sector’s perception of regional economic
integration, especially as “we were made to understand
that there were still some misgivings on the part of the
private sector.”
“The
President was saying that the leaders have decided on
this, and this is really what we need—to accelerate the
integration. She strongly suggested to the Asean members
for them to confer with their respective governments if
there are still some reservations. But she did say that
insofar as the Philippines [is concerned], it’s all
systems go,” Favila said.
The
trade chief said he told the group that the Asean would
have to pursue economic integration as the international
community is anticipating whether it could be achieved.
“I was
saying even that we really need to proceed with this
because the whole world is also watching whether Asean
can really have that single community and that
integration in 2015,” he said.
Favila
said he and the President, like other Asean leaders,
believe the AEC is necessary as the region’s buffer from
the rapid growth of China and India.
Donald
Dee, chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (PCCI), said in an interview shortly after the
breakfast meeting that the Abac “will support the
leaders’ consensus for realizing the objective of having
an Asean Economic Community by 2015.”
Asked
whether seven years is enough lead time to prepare for a
single Asean market and production base, as envisioned
by the AEC, Dee said: “Whoever is ready comes in. That’s
why it’s important that we in the private sector work
with DTI as early as now, to prepare because we do not
want to be, at the tail end. We want to be in fact,
ahead or at least at the same time as the original six.”
He said
Philippine business groups are committed to embark on
efforts to prepare for such integration, beginning with
a review of the agreements “especially with regard to
AEC, and we will break it down.”
Dee said
Philippine business groups will look at specific sectors
to “use as anchor” to begin the process of economic
integration. “We will also be proposing certain policy
changes because as we integrate with the nine other
economies, there are some procedural changes that have
to take place, but we are confident that for the
Philippines, services will be one of the major
advantages that we can get out of the AEC,” he said.
Dee also
said the PCCI has coordinated with the national chambers
in the country and would be conducting an information
campaign on the AEC in the next four months.
Dee said
the Philippine group—which included former National
Movement for Free Elections chairman Jose Concepcion,
Miguel Varela, and Zesto Corp.’s Alfredo Yao—told the
President about the anticipated concern of some sectors
in the Philippines about the AEC’s implications on
Philippine sovereignty.
“We told
the President that in crafting the road map and also the
policy, we have to make sure the constitution is
respected. You know, in the services, under the AEC, it
allows 70 percent foreign or other Asean investors, but
this may be in conflict with our own constitution,”
Dee said.
He said
the President replied that the economic integration
allows for some “flexibilities.”
For
example, Dee said, countries are allowed “15 percent of
your tariff or sector to be in the exclusion list. We
will look at that. But obviously what we would want is,
if [something] is barred by the constitution, then it
[must be] barred,” Dee said.
The
newer Asean members are apparently concerned about the
impact of the AEC on their economies, as shown by the
agenda of that day’s Abac meeting that he was attending,
according to
Dee.
“Even
this morning as we met, the first thing in the agenda
was, what will the original six members do to support
them?” he said.
The
Philippine business groups, Dee said, had told the
President about plans of a PCCI member to invest in the
airline business by integrating Sea Air with another
airline he did not name, and then further link it with
an Asean airline. This new airline, being an Asean
corporate structure, will use the Diosdado Macapagal
International Airport as a hub, he said.
Another
project, he said, is a joint venture between a
Philippine group and Brunei for the construction of a
40-story mixed-use building in Metro Manila.
Other
possible projects involve the
Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth
Area (BIMP-Eaga) for a biodiesel project.
Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye said
Dee reported the interest of Mitsui Busan to build a ship-repair
facility in the country, and the plan of Tiger Airways
to set up operations in Clark Freeport.
The AEC
seeks to establish Asean as a single market and
production base, and translate the diversity within the
region into “opportunities for business
complementation”, according to the Asean Secretariat.
The
Asean leaders will sign the declaration on the AEC
blueprint–one of the pillars of the Asean Community,
along with the Asean Security Community and the Asean
Sociocultural Community–together with the Asean Charter,
the Declaration on the Asean Economic Community (AEC)
Blueprint, Asean Declaration on Environmental
Sustainability, and the Asean Declaration on
Environmental Sustainability, and Asean Declaration on
the 13th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework
Conference on Climate Change and the 3rd Session of the
Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of the
Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. |
