The business community attending the Asean 100 Leadership Forum in
Myanmar said yesterday that while the Asean economic integration is moving in
the right direction, it is nowhere close to being seamlessly integrated.
"The Asean integration is
moving in the right direction, it is probably not moving as fast as many people
would like and there are various reasons for that, but it is also continuously
moving in the right direction," said Heinrich Jessen, chairman of
Singapore-based Jebsen and Jessen Group.
"It is definitely too slow,
we are not moving fast enough in terms of creating a platform for a truly
Asean-based business, we are truly lacking from a branding perspective and we
don't really have a world-class Asean brand, probably a few Asean brands but
that's mainly country driven," said Sandiaga Uno, founding partner and
chief executive officer of Saratoga Capital.
Idris Vasi, chief executive
officer of the DST Group in Brunei, said that "doing business across the
Asean countries is not seamless", in terms of economic and taxation
policies, among others.
"It is all on a country by
country basis, and ... a lot of this integration needs to be done bilaterally
rather than Asean-wide," he said.
With the 2015 deadline of having
Asean economically integrated drawing close, entrepreneurs need to take the
lead, according to Uno. "We should not point fingers to the government as
they are too busy with politics in other parts of Asean, and [the Asean 100] is
a really good example of bringing entrepreneurs together to think about what we
can really do," he said.
He warned that the slow pace of
the regional integration could lead other countries outside the Asean to seize
the market. "We need to move fast and the entrepreneurial spirit is there,
but the economic system needs to be quickly integrated and needs to be
improved."
In his keynote address, Nazrin
Shah, Crown Prince of the State of Perak in Malaysia, said that the Asean
Secretariat lacked resources to carry out regional integration.
Jessen agreed, adding that he
thought that the Asean secretariat was "underfunded and
understaffed".
"Even when the political
will is there, and with the objectives set by Asean being very good and
specific ... it requires hoarders of bureaucrats to take these objectives and
implement them at a national level and go through all the various laws in each
country to make sure that they are updated and that they are catered to the
Asean objectives," said Jessen.
"I don't think the objective
that is being set for 2015 will all be achieved by 2015, but that's fine, I'm
not too worried about that as long as the direction is the same," he said.
Vasi, on his part, said that many
of the negotiations in Asean happen on a bilateral level rather than on a
regional level.
"If a Bruneian company wants
to do business in Malaysia or Indonesia for example, the challenges would be
different... Asean doesn't come into play so much so it's more bilateral,"
he said.
Jessen said that the key to
integrating correctly is dialogue and network.
"It is the young
entrepreneurs and the young politicians that are meeting at this forum, and in
due course will be doing business together, and they need their networks to
press the right pressure buttons in the individual governments, so that they
understand the day-to-day business challenges that the businesses have who are
operating within Asean and to do so across borders."
Business Desk
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Health care and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN 's area. We are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, if any request, please, contact directly Dr Christian SIODMAK, business strategist, owner and CEO of SBC at christian.siodmak@gmail.com. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment