ASEAN Girds for the Challenges of Indochina
International Herald Tribune
December 15, 1995
Michael Richardson 

Even as ASEAN countries were to launch new policies Friday aimed at further liberalizing trade and strengthening regional cohesion, some leaders said Thursday that the group would have to take more radical steps to catch up with rival economic communities in Europe and the Americas.

Some also cautioned that the planned entry of Laos, Cambodia and Burma into ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations, in the next few years — following Vietnam's admittance in July — could complicate decision-making and slow progress toward regional free trade.

Vietnam and Laos are Communist-ruled countries. Burma is run by a military regime that has been widely condemned for repressing democracy and violating human rights. Cambodia is struggling to recover from years of civil war and foreign military occupation.

All four countries have much lower levels of economic development than the six core ASEAN members — Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

"More members mean more challenges," said Sultan Muda Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei. "New members will increase our political, economic and cultural diversity." He was speaking at the opening of a two-day summit of ASEAN heads of government that was being attended for the first time by the leaders of Laos, Cambodia and Burma.

Officials said the ASEAN leaders had agreed in private talks Thursday to help marshal a major international aid program to help the three Indochinese countries and Burma close the economic gap with other members of the group.

They said the leaders also had agreed to start integrating the three candidate members of ASEAN into some of the group's activities even before they joined.

President Suharto of Indonesia said that by extending support to Laos, Cambodia and Burma, "we will ensure their smooth integration into the various activities and processes of ASEAN."

Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia said that "intensification of trade and investment with these immediate neighbors of ours" would bring mutual benefits to all of Southeast Asia.

Other leaders were less upbeat on the prospects of rapid regional integration. "The Europeans are building their common house of Europe," said Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore. "The extended-family home of Asia may be 50 years or even 100 years away."

Officials said the summit would end Friday with the signing of agreements to broaden ASEAN's program to liberalize trade in most goods by 2003.

They said new services and plans to heighten protection of intellectual property, along with new investment projects and a program to bring about uniform customs procedures and product standards in the region, would be added to the liberalization package.

Under ASEAN's free-trade program, which covers more than 80 percent of goods traded in the region, tariffs are to be cut to no more than 5 percent by 2003, with similar reductions in nontariff barriers.

Vietnam, however, has been given until 2006 to complete its tariff-cutting, and Burma, Cambodia and Laos are expected to be given similar leeway.

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