FOR Asean, regional economic integration cannot stop at policy measures. Integration cannot end at cutting tariffs, removing non-tariff barriers, reducing obstacles to investment and easing restrictions on trade in services. Economic integration must also mean binding Asean’s members through infrastructure in energy, transport and communications. Integrating a regional infrastructure is one of Asean’s toughest goals, because the region is geographically diverse and its economies are at different levels of development. For example, several of its members such as Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia form a landmass. These geographic characteristics should mean that infrastructure links among them—connecting roads, rail, communication and power lines across national boundaries—could be relatively easy to set up. However, it is not the case when some of these boundaries are mountain ranges and rivers. Other Asean members, including the Philippines, are separated by deep sea, making linkages between them expensive. Despite these difficulties, Asean has made the development of infrastructure linkages one of its primary goals.
To expand the much needed infrastructure development, Asean countries must assess the magnitude of national infrastructure financing needs and financing gaps within key sectors such as transport, energy, telecommunication, water and sanitation. The Philippines, for example, tried to use public-private partnership (PPP) models to get the private sector involved in infrastructure development; while the idea is great, it is sad to see that in five years of the Aquino administration, PPP has not worked. There is still hope that a number of projects will commence before this administration bows out in 2016; and it is trusted that the next administration will execute/implement what has been started.
Many Asean countries are experiencing a crisis in water development and management. Asean needs to establish a collective regional response to the crisis that would include more effective ways of sharing water resources, among other things. In the Philippines, more efforts have to be undertaken to get the message across that water is a finite resource and that water conservation and water treatment are essential.
Asean initiatives on energy interconnection date back to the Asean Cooperation Project on Interconnection, which started in 1982! This was aimed at linking the power systems of neighboring Asean countries. In 1986 Asean member-countries signed the Agreement on Asean Energy Cooperation, calling for cooperation in the efficient development and use of all forms of energy, whether commercial and noncommercial, renewable or nonrenewable. In the Philippines, it is time to expand the national grid to Mindanao to eventually allow the link to Indonesia and Malaysia.
As Asean promotes regional infrastructure development, it is important for it to ensure that the region follows a green path. Asean countries have a critical responsibility in this area because the region is contributing even more carbon-dioxide emissions. In the Philippines, the private sector is asking the government to come up with a long-term vision on the energy mix, raising the share of renewables to the detriment of coal plants (plenty coal plants are still on the drawing board or under construction and developing a natural-gas strategy on local resources and imported liquefied natural gas.