ASEAN aims to narrow development gap

Boosting internal cooperation and expanding cooperation with developed partners around the world have been defined as the prime solutions that ASEAN should take to narrow the widening development gap among its members.

“An increasingly widening development gap is posed as the top impediment to ASEAN’s future growth,” Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said, addressing the 42 nd ASEAN Economic Ministerial Meeting and Related Meetings in Da Nang city on August 25.

Statistics provide the facts of the disparity in GDP between the group of Indonesia , Brunei , Thailand , Malaysia , Singapore and the Philippines , and the group of Cambodia , Laos , Myanmar and Vietnam within ASEAN is 80-90 times and that in per capita income is 17-50 times.

ASEAN member countries are dealing with great differences in market scope and economic structures.

In trade, Singapore is topping other ASEAN member countries in import-export value as it has accounted for 33.5 percent of the group’s import-export value. It is followed by Thailand , 18.6 percent and Malaysia , 18.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has accounted for a meagre 1.47 percent and all three countries of Laos , Myanmar and Cambodia have made up only 2.2 percent of ASEAN’s import-export value.

“This disparity will make ASEAN divided and unsustainable,” emphasised ASEAN Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan.

He regarded the disparity as a cause that hinders ASEAN member countries from opportunities to gain benefits from their integration effectively.

Due to the disparity in the development gap, trade within the group in 2009 accounted for just 20 percent of its total trade value of 1.5 trillion USD.

To increase the group’s internal trade to 30 percent by 2015, ASEAN member countries, especially Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, need to make the best utility of their cooperation based on signed agreements on trade liberalisation and commitments to lifting tax and technical barriers, said Pitsuwan.

Indonesia , Brunei , Thailand , Malaysia , Singapore , and the Philippines have given Cambodia , Laos , Myanmar and Vietnam tax incentives and provided them with funding and experts for training courses on management, economics, investment promotion, information technology, and English.

ASEAN’s partners, including Japan, China, the EU, the US, and Australia have also lent helping hands to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam — the less-developed countries in ASEAN– through the ASEAN Integration Fund and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

They have also funded more than 200 projects on infrastructure, transport and communications, information technology, and human resource development in these countries.

Vietnam should utilise preferential treatments from ASEAN’s free trade agreements with its big partners and take advantage of special incentives it enjoys from bilateral agreements with these partners to quickly narrow its development gap with other ASEAN member countries.

Tags: Asean