Monday, August 21 2006 18:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kuala Lumpur: South-East Asian trade ministers arrived in Malaysia today (Aug 21, 2006) for a meeting aimed at forging a single regional market by 2015 and strengthening the region's links with trading partners including China, India and the US. The ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are to hold talks aimed at further liberalising trade in goods after kicking off their five-day meeting at an informal working dinner later Monday. One of the main goals of the meeting in Kuala Lumpur is to adopt policies to enable the region to create the so-called ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a single market and production base, by the year 2020, Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said. However, officials in Kuala Lumpur are pushing for the creation of the AEC to be completed by 2015 to ensure the region stays competitive. "Despite many initiatives taken over the years, there is still a lot more to be done to realise the vision of the ASEAN Economic Community," Rafidah said. Among the goals are removing barriers to the flow of goods and services and restrictive business practices in certain nations in the region, which has a market of over 530 million people, but accounts for only six percent of world exports. The ASEAN ministers are to also meet their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand and are due to sign an investment and trade-facilitating agreement with the US. ASEAN consists of Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.