Welcome Remarks by Dr Robert Yap, at SBF Seminar on
“ASEAN Economic Community – Growing Singapore SMEs” on 22 April 2009,
9.30am - 12.30pm at SBF Seminar Room 2
On behalf of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), I would like to welcome all participants to SBF's seminar on "ASEAN Economic Community – Growing Singapore SMEs". It is our privilege to have with us today a distinguished panel of speakers to discuss the topic of Singapore SMEs going regional within the context of the ASEAN Economic Community to be achieved by 2015.
We thank our supporting organisation, Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, and sponsor, M Hotel, for their partnership for this event.
Facing the global economic crisis today, it can be too quick a reaction for business enterprises, particularly SMEs, to think that the present crisis means they should focus inward domestically rather than continue to seek out external ventures, regionally or internationally. It is not automatically the case that crisis times mean the end of the external wing.
At the ASEAN level, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint was signed in November 2007 to transform ASEAN into a single market and production base by 2015. The aim is to achieve free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and freer flow of capital within a pro-business environment. Whilst it is easy to be dismissive (especially with the situation in Thailand) about ASEAN’s integration efforts, we should note that the ratification of the ASEAN Charter by all ASEAN countries by December 2008 marks a milestone in giving ASEAN the legal basis to implement its various agreements.
Under AEC, plans for SME growth include establishing comprehensive SME service centres with regional linkages, SME financial facilities in each ASEAN country, regional programmes for promoting internship schemes for staff exchanges and visits for skills training, regional SME development fund as a financial source for SMEs doing business in the region.
Extending beyond ASEAN, there are the ASEAN+3 Dialogue relations with China, Japan, Korea with their Free Trade Agreements. With China, ASEAN is in the final stage of an FTA, with an investment agreement to be signed this year. The FTA, to be effective next year, will be the world’s largest FTA. The advantage for SMEs is a huge market size with a combined population of 1.8 billion, removal of trade tariffs, increased investment opportunities.
With Japan, the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement has already entered into force among Japan, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, Malaysia as at February this year. There will be a stronger boost for trade in goods and services, investments. With Korea, FTA for Trade in Goods is to be realised by 2012 for ASEAN-6 and by 2020 for CLMV countries. FTA for Trade in Services and Investment will be implemented within timeframes to be mutually agreed. The next step forward is a FTA between ASEAN and its six Dialogue countries, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, i.e., East Asia FTA. With these ASEAN-plus FTAs, SMEs stand to gain from reduced tariff barriers, greater opening of domestic markets, more incentives for investment ventures.
The FTA scenario which I just outlined is to give you a bigger picture of the various building blocks which ASEAN is presently working on - which will contribute towards the realisation of the AEC in a timely manner in line with the implementation schedules.
At this seminar, we wish to hear from you as well about your experiences in operating within the region - the benefits gained and challenges encountered in doing business with ASEAN; labour mobility issues in the regionalisation drive; corporate experiences of financial and market challenges in going regional.
On the part of the ASEAN private sector, the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) is the highest-level business grouping which provides business feedback to the ASEAN Leaders during the annual ASEAN Summit in the ASEAN private-public sector partnership. In Singapore, SBF facilitates the participation of Singapore’s ASEAN-BAC members in the ASEAN-BAC forum - as such, your views on issues concerning the process of ASEAN economic integration can be channelled via SBF for input to the respective ASEAN plus Dialogue countries’ governments, both at the national and regional level.
I look forward to greater interaction with you during this seminar and wish everyone a fruitful exchange of experiences.
Thank you for your participation.
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