Development
of ASEAN Economic Zone (AEC) started to shift to Consumer Protection (CP)
issue. A leaflet concerning complaints of consumers in ASEAN will be published.
ASEAN Committee on Consumer Protection (ACCP) provides hotline services at the
national level of each country. The leaflet will provide an input in order to
continuously increase awareness about CP in ASEAN and outside ASEAN. The CP
issue was once discussed in a meeting attended by more than 500 economic
leaders of ASEAN and European Union (EU) in Phnom Penh. This attempt is a
commitment to protect consumers in Southeast Asia region. PK is closely related
to trading business sector because fair and ethical practices in trade
transactions are also part of the interest of ASEAN.
The 2nd ASEAN-European
Union Business Summit (AEBS) also discussed about other sectors related to
business and trade in both regions. The meeting followed-up the model of
involvement of private sectors in ASEAN who held business-to-business (B2B),
government-to-government (G2G) and business-to-government (B2G) dialogs. Surin
Pitsuwan, Secretary General of ASEAN, in his welcome speech, urged about the
need for the development of economic involvement in both regions, Europe and
Southeast Asia (ASEAN). The business community must be able to find a loophole
for the development and expansion of the economic cooperation. EU Trade
Commissioner, Karel De Gucht, said that 90 percent of economic growth in the
world will occur outside European border. The largest proportion is in Asia,
and Europe sees AEBS as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation in some core
sectors. Besides agribusiness, AEBS emphasized on the need for cooperation in
manufacturing, services, and connectivity infrastructure sectors. Agribusiness
sector mainly consists of food and beverage processing. While, infrastructure
sector consists of logistics and trade facilities. Service sector consists of
finance, insurance, and information technology.
Even though economic crisis occurs
in almost all countries EU is the second biggest partner after China. Portion
of EU-ASEAN cooperation comprises around 10.2 percent of total trade in ASEAN
in 2010. A more comprehensive trade data shows that EU is ASEAN’s biggest
export market in 2010 or 10.7 percent of total export of countries in Southeast
Asian region. EU is continuously attempting to be the main source of ASEAN in
foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2010 which value reaches USD 17 billions or
23 percent of total FDI in ASEAN.
Concerning sect oral recommendation,
Cambodia’s Trade Minister, Cham Prasidh, who is also chairman of the ASEAN
Economic Ministers (AEM) Meeting sees that involvement of the private sector is
very important. ASEAN pays mush attention to the interest and involvement of
private sectors in moving toward ASEAN economic zone. Economic ministers of ten
ASEAN member countries invited the private sectors to meet with officials to
participate in the discussions concerning customs, connectivity infrastructure,
and information technology issue.
The AEBS ended in B2G session which
opened a unique opportunity for private sectors to interact with ASEAN economic
ministers and EU Trade Commissioner. The most important recommendation is that
the private sector covers various fields and reduction of non-tariff
regulations, standard harmonization and suitability of services with trade,
connectivity infrastructure of ASEAN funding access to small and medium
businesses (SMB) and other.
The 2nd AEBS was arranged
from April 1 to 2, 2012 by the Cambodian government, Cambodian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, EUROCHAM (EU), and ASEAN Business Advisory Council
(ASEAN BAC).
Business News - April 9, 2012
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