CLMV countries' full-entry date slated for 2018

 

Ye Htut, who is also the Deputy Minister for Information, said that CLMV countries will fully enjoy the establishment of AEC by 2018 due to the development gap between the CLMV countries and the other six nations.

“Besides the development gap, there are other reasons why the AEC deadline was extended for CLMV countries,” said Ye Htut.

“All these countries including Myanmar are the latest four countries which joined the Asean. So they need to take more time for the full activation of the common market.”

During the 24th Asean Summit which was recently held in Nay Pyi Taw, Asean leaders emphasised the role of achieving equitable economic development in the region and narrowing the development gap between Asean-6 and CLMV countries. They also reaffirmed to support the CLMV cooperation.

“Owing to the cross-cutting nature of the development gap and its significance to the Aseanintegration process, we agreed to task our officials to initiate discussions on developing the post-2015 for the Initiative for Asean Integration,” said the chairman’s statement which was released a day late after the Summit.

The statement said that Asean is currently developing a monitoring tool to track the level equitable economic development in the region in collaboration with the World Bank. 

The monitoring tool would provide Asean member states with a common basis for both understanding trends in equitable development across the region and identifying areas of concern, while also analysing factors affecting changes in equitable development. The monitoring tool would also support the formulation of Asean-wide policies to promote equitable economic development.

Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh expressed optimism about the implementation of Asean integration within the targeted timeframe. 

“Up to now, we have completed 80 per cent [of required action lines] altogether. If you look at the figures, we have already started implementing all these matters in 2009. After less than six years of implementation, we have reached more than 80 per cent of all the targets,” Minh told Myanmar Eleven in an interview during the Summit.

“So generally, the growth rate is about 15 per cent a year. Now we have one year and a half. So overall, I am quite confident that we will complete the Asean integration within the limited timeframe,” said the Secretary-General, adding that AEC is a very important step of Asean integration.

Economist Myint Soe considers the extension of AEC deadline as a good sign for Myanmar.

“As the saying goes, well-begun is half-done, the beginning is very important. We need to prepare well before the launch of AEC. Without enough preparation, it will become a failure,” said Myint Soe.

“We are further behind than half of the Asean countries, so we need to double our efforts to catch up with them. It is better to take time for preparation than to be hasty without enough expertise.”

Ye Htut also offered some suggestions for narrowing the development gap among the Asean member states.

“Firstly, we need to encourage small and medium enterprises in order to uplift their quality and performance. Secondly, we should not focus too much on foreign investment. We also have the right to do businesses in other countries. So we need to train our businesses to use such a good opportunity,” said Ye Htut.

“We should not be afraid of establishing the single market although there are a lot of challenges. We have both opportunities and challenges. We (the government’s ministries) are now trying to overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities.”