3 - Future Directions: New Areas of Economic Co-operation

Summary

Introduction

Many ASEAN activities related to economic co-operation during the first two decades of the organization's existence were implicitly dedicated to building confidence and increasing familiarity. Still, there were many instances of co-operation throughout the period. Though no less important, these were mainly symbolic in character as they were part and parcel of the familiarization context. Over the years, ASEAN economic co-operation can be considered evolutionary and consistent with the region's culture. Absent were legal intricacies to ASEAN agreements, specific details to co-operation activities, and voluminous annexes.

Once confidence was built within ASEAN governments and mutual trust generated, the pace of economic co-operation accelerated, the substance deepened, and coverage widened. The bold initiatives that ASEAN took in the last three years would have encountered scepticism if foundations were not concretized earlier. Although external factors played critical roles in the dramatic turning points in economic cooperation, the experience of working together for more than two decades facilitated ASEAN solidarity.

The previous chapter reviewed and assessed in detail ASEAN economic co-operation since its founding. Even though initial attempts to forge closer relations among ASEAN countries fumbled around numerous arrangements, an underlying agenda was to accelerate economic growth through a more secure and stable environment in the region. Even in the midst of initial animosities between some countries, collective interests eventually prevailed towards ASEAN as it is today.

ASEAN economic co-operation originally covered traditional sectors. Short of being commodity-specific, core areas were later covered (that is. industry and trade). Eventually, other supportive areas were also included (for example, finance, minerals, energy, transport, communications, and tourism).

The solutions and approaches taken by ASEAN to forge economic co-operation were equally traditional. In agricultural or industrial production, for example, efforts were concentrated on increased output within ASEAN as early industrial schemes relied on production allocation. Technological exchanges also emphasized mutual benefits from sharing experiences as did other related schemes such as swap arrangements, food security, and so forth.

From the review, some weak spots in ASEAN economic co-operation emerged. In the core areas, products not produced in ASEAN received liberal concessions while there was reluctance to freer trade among those the members produce.