Senior economic officials from ASEAN countries met here on Wednesday to seek ways to bring the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) into reality earlier.
Advancing the AEC process is one of the major issues discussed at the ASEAN Senior Economic Officials preparatory meeting although there were few specific new initiatives popping up at the gathering, said officials attending the meeting.
The participants actually were following up on instructions that their leaders gave last year to seek ways to push ahead the realization of the AEC, said Ooi Say Chuan, a senior official from the Malaysian International Trade and Industry Ministry.
The AEC was very important for ASEAN's integration efforts and it was among the substantial issues discussed at the meeting, an Indonesian official said.
ASEAN's progress with its dialogue partners was also among the discussion, the official said.
The AEC is a unified community similar to the European Union that ASEAN hopes to establish by 2015 through various ways, such as the integration of business sectors.
ASEAN countries have worked out roadmaps for the eleven priority sectors toward liberalization, that is, automotive, garment and textile industries, e-commerce, healthcare, airlines, tourism, wood-based products, marine and aquatic products, rubber, agro-based products and electronics.
At the upcoming 38th ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting to be held here later this month, ASEAN countries are expected to add a roadmap for the logistics sector, the 12th priority sector for integration.
The four new members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV), lagged behind the other six old members due to the limitations of their countries' economic developments, Vietnamese delegate Bui Huy Son said.
But the CLMV have agreed to advancing the realization of the AEC to 2015 from 2020, Bui said. However, he added, his country did not raise any specific issues at the preparatory meeting.
