A

s ASEAN chair this year, Indonesia will bring raise the issue of inclusive and equitable economic development in the region at the annual economic ministers’ meeting in Manado, North Sulawesi, next week, a minister says.

Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, who will lead the meeting, scheduled to take place from Aug. 10-14, said Tuesday in Jakarta that Indonesia would offer a framework to achieve inclusive and equitable development, which would include supporting small- and medium-scale enterprises in the region.

“We are formulating the guiding principles of the ASEAN Framework for Equitable Development to be used by all institutions in the ASEAN Economic Community [AEC] to overcome development gaps,” she said at a briefing of the meeting at her office.

Mari cited the example of such gaps between the most developed ASEAN member state Singapore and other less developed member states, such as Cambodia and Laos.

Singapore has a per capita GDP of more than US$37,000, while Cambodia and Laos have a per
capita income of $700 and $980, respectively.

Mari said participants to the meeting would discuss ways to overcome development gaps so the benefits of regional integration between ASEAN member states could be enjoyed by more countries and the imbalance between countries could be reduced.

She said the meeting would focus on two other important issues — the integration of 10 ASEAN member states into the AEC by 2015 and the role of ASEAN in East Asia.

“During the meeting, we want to check how far the blueprint of the AEC has been met to support
the establishment of the AEC,” Mari said, adding that improvements were needed on trade facilitation and mutual recognition for standardization of products made in ASEAN.

She added that so far, six ASEAN member states had lifted import duties on 99 percent of traded goods among the region and 10 ASEAN member states had reduced import duties to 0 to 5 percent for 99 percent of traded goods.

Intra-ASEAN trade grew significantly in recent years, reaching $470 billion in 2008, $376.2 billion in 2009 and $519.7 billion in 2010. Last year, this was equivalent to 25 percent of the total trade of $2.04 trillion between ASEAN and the rest of the world.

Mari said the meeting would also underline the role of ASEAN in East Asia as trade between member states grew through a number of trade agreements, including with China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

The meeting will also engage representatives from other key ASEAN partners — the US and Russia
— as both would also take part in the East Asia Summit in November, she said.