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    ASEAN Secretary-General HE Le Luong Min gave a speech at a drinks reception held at Asia House. Copyright Miles Willis Photography
    ASEAN Secretary-General HE Le Luong Min gave a speech at a drinks reception held at Asia House following a private briefing for corporate members. Copyright Miles Willis Photography

    ASEAN Secretary-General: “We want to resume negotiations on the EU-ASEAN FTA”

    Published On: 11 June 2015

    ASEAN Secretary-General HE Le Luong Minh told guests at a reception held at Asia House that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was keen to resume negotiations on the stalled EU-ASEAN FTA.

    Negotiations for an EU-ASEAN FTA were launched in 2007 with seven ASEAN Member States but both sides agreed to pause the negotiations in March 2009.

    “We want to resume negotiations on the EU-ASEAN FTA which will take relations and trade to a higher level and bring great opportunities to the business sector on both sides,” Mr Minh told an audience of representatives from the London diplomatic community and British and Asian business leaders working in the region, who attended the drinks reception.

    Mr Minh said that the EU’s investment in ASEAN had increased consistently and continued to be ASEAN’s largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI). The EU and ASEAN are major trading partners with approximately US$246 billion of bilateral trade in goods and services per year in 2013, he said. The EU is ASEAN’s third largest trading partner.

    In 2013 the combined GDP of ASEAN, which has a population of 625 million, was US$2.8 trillion. ASEAN is now the third largest economy in Asia and the seventh largest in the world, he said. It could be fourth largest economy in the world by 2050, if growth trends continue.

    “In recent surveys of foreign companies, most respondents said that ASEAN been one of their most important markets for global revenues. Most foreign companies believe ASEAN integration will help them do business in the region. Many of them are already developing national and regional ASEAN strategies based on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) [the goal of regional economic integration by 2015],” he added.

    “ASEAN was set up with a framework of bold economic reforms. In six years since the adoption of the ASEAN Economic Community blueprint, 91 per cent of all measures have been implemented,” Mr Minh said.

    He said as a result of that implementation the economic landscape of ASEAN economies had “contributed to the regional and global value chain” and provided ASEAN with “resilience in the face of slow growth and uncertainty”.

    The ASEAN Leaders adopted the AEC Blueprint at the 13th ASEAN Summit on 20 November 2007 in Singapore as a master plan to guide the establishment of the AEC.

    Mr Minh thanked all those present for their show of interest in ASEAN, an international organisation of nations in Southeast Asia, which was inaugurated in 1967 with five countries and now has 10 member states. He said the ties between the nations were “important factors in ensuring peace, stability and economic development for the region and beyond.”

    Miles Celic, Director, Group Strategic Communications at Prudential, which sponsored the drinks reception, who is also a Trustee of Asia House, said: “These are exciting times for the ASEAN region, which will become a very important region with the establishment of the AEC.  The region has a growing middle class with a young population, the average age of which is 27. Prudential has 90 years worth of experience in ASEAN. Today we operate in seven member states.”

    ASEAN Secretary-General HE Le Luong Minh, left, with CEO of Asia House Michael Lawrence, right, at a private briefing for Asia House corporate members. Copyright Miles Willis Photography

    Earlier in the day ASEAN Secretary-General HE Le Luong Minh briefed Asia House corporate members on the progress of the AEC, infrastructure in the region and the EU-ASEAN FTA, at a private briefing, held at Asia House.

    Members represented at the briefing included Arup, Diageo, GSK, PA Consulting, HSBC, Tesco, KPMG, Nikkei, Prudential, PwC and Mitsui.

    naomi.canton@asiahouse.co.uk

    HE Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN for 2013-2017, is also the keynote speaker at our conference ‘ASEAN Strategy – Seizing the New Regional Opportunity’ which takes place on Friday 12 June from 08.30. For full details about the conference click here. To see the conference programme and line-up of speakers click here.

    Gregory Domingo, the Philippine Secretary of Trade and Industry, will brief corporate members on the trade and investment environment in the Philippines on 18 June. To find out more click here.  He is also the keynote speaker at our investment business conference being held the same day ‘The Philippines: Asia’s Bright Spot.’ To find out more click here.