Tuesday, August 22 2006 14:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kuala Lumpur: South-East Asian economic ministers on today (Aug 22, 2006) began talks aimed at breaking trade barriers to ensure a smoother flow of goods and services within the region, as it forges ahead to create a single trade market by 2015. The ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) had arrived in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur on Monday to begin informal meetings aimed at further liberalising trade. The main goal of the ministers will be working towards adopting specific policies to enable the region to create the so-called ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a single market and production base, by the year 2015. "With a sizeable population base and the extensive economic infrastructure already in place, ASEAN's potential as an economic entity is quite obvious," said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi during the opening ceremony of the talks. However, Abdullah warned delegates from the 10-member ASEAN nations that the region would 'remain marginal players' unless South-East Asian nations began to exert influence as a group. "The more united we are as an economic player, the bigger will be our role in steering the process of the global trade talks," he said. The AEC, which is an EU-styled single market but does not include a single currency system, had initially been set for completion by 2020, but ASEAN officials have pushed for an earlier deadline in order to ensure the region stays competitive. "If we do not hasten the creation of that regional single market, ASEAN may run the risk of losing its position as an important investment destination," said Abdullah. ASEAN is a market of more than 530 million people, but accounts for only 6 percent of world exports. Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz had earlier reiterated that the economic ministers' goal was on achieving a truly free market through the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). AFTA was established in Jan 1992 to eliminate trade barriers among ASEAN states and to fuse the regions' economies into a single production base Rafidah told delegates Tuesday that the main challenge faced by the region was to get investors to view ASEAN as "a single, cohesive, economic entity, which allows for free flow of goods and services, with little or no barriers". However, she expressed optimism that the Kuala Lumpur talks would further accelerate the economic integration of the region and build closer ties with trading partners such as China, India and the US. The ministers will meet their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand throughout the week 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 (Burma), Laos and Cambodia.