AEC to stay focused on regional public, private sectors
THE Asean Economic Community will continue to focus on the four main pillars established in its blueprint in order to foster effective collaborations between the public and private sectors at the regional level.
Asean Business Advisory Council chairman Tan Sri Munir Majid said that AEC would not overlook those pillars and was working on this “unfinished business”.
“Basically, the four pillars revolved around the removal of non-tariff barriers towards a single Asean market platform. We also aspire towards an easy movement of skilled labour in the region. We must continue to assess how far are we on constructing these four pillars,” he told a press conference at the Asean Business and Investment Summit 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.
AEC blueprint focused on efforts to establish a single market and production base, a competitive economic region, equitable economic development and integration into the global economy.
According to the April 2012 AEC scorecard, 68.2 per cent of the measures in the blueprint have been successfully implemented.
Munir called for more interfaces among Asean members especially in terms of finance.
He said interfaces among the economic ministers had been good but stakeholders needed to be more proactive in holding dialogues between finance ministers and central banks.
Earlier, the Asean Business Advisory Council launched the growth accelerator exchange, a digital platform catering to the financial needs of Asean small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Munir said GAX aimed to strengthen Asean SMEs in terms of their limited access to finance.
