Top corporate leaders have called on Asean to remove economic barriers and create a level playing field to promote free trade that could benefit some 600 million people living in the region.

The Asean Business Club (ABC) launched the "Lifting- The-Barriers" reports last Friday in Jakarta, outlining solutions to critical bottlenecks and barriers hindering free trade in the region from economic nationalism, labour constraints, regulatory congestion and underdeveloped infrastructure.

The White Paper highlighted six priority sectors - aviation, connectivity, infrastructure, power and utilities, capital markets, financial services and healthcare.

"I urge Asean leaders to review progress to-date, implementation prospects and with precision, specify what will and what will not be in place on Dec 31, 2015.

"These should also be backed by binding commitments by governments so businesses can prepare themselves with certainty," Group CEO of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd Datuk Seri Nazir Razak said at the launch.

Nazir, also a member of ABC Advisory Council, revealed that despite progress made in eliminating most tariff lines at roughly 99.65%, non-tariff barriers between Asean countries remained high.

The "Lifting-The-Barriers" initiative is a joint effort by CIMB Asean Research Institute and ABC.

The 10-member South-East Asian association-led trade architecture, established in 1967, is gearing to build an ambitious Asean Economic Community by 2015, ultimately leading to a single market and production base.

Asean leaders had been trying to transform the resourcerich region into a powerful economic hub that could promote efficient intra-regional trade, with free movement of goods, capital, skilled labour, investment and services.

Asean members include highly developed economies to underdeveloped states, stretching from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

At the event, Asean Secretary General His Excellency Le Luong Minh said, "The private sector can carry out in depth market analysis of the region to identify potential markets and challenges that adds value to the ongoing discussions on how we can enhance the process of economic integration."

Nazir also identified three key elements to realise the Asean vision. Firstly, there should be more power and funding for the grouping's secretariat.

Secondly, Asean ministers in each government need to promote Asean's goals domestically.

Finally, introduce iconic projects such as the development of an Asean exchange, Asean ratings agency and even an Asean World Cup, all that would help capture the grouping's public imagination and a sense of common identity, said the banker.

By themalaysianreserve.com/

The post Call on Asean to remove trade barriers appeared first on Asean Investment | Marc Djandji Blog.