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./.
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