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n its attempts to lure businesspeople and boost investment against the backdrop of the global economic slowdown, ASEAN must work together with a complimentary instead of competitive spirit, a top official says.

Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chairman Gita Wirjawan, who is also the Trade Minister, said the weakening of rich countries — the United States and European nations — would affect the scale of investment making its way toward ASEAN states.

 However, he added, the trend and trajectory for ASEAN to receive “fantastic figures” of investment from all over the world would continue, and therefore “we have to create a single, competitive manufacturing and production base in ASEAN”.

Home to 600 million people, ASEAN has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$1.8 trillion with $76 billion total foreign direct investment (FDI) flooding into the region last year.

“It’s important to recognize that each member country of ASEAN is at a different level of economic development. As such, the spirit of complementarity is there and will be there for a long time,” Gita told the heads of ASEAN member countries’ investment boards in the ASEAN Investment Forum.

Members of ASEAN are situated along different points of a spectrum, Gita said, citing the example of knowledge-based economy Singapore, which might no longer need to manufacture products like textiles and shoes, while Indonesia would be interested in such kinds of investment.

Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand were more advanced, but the rest were still lagging with some, like Cambodia and Laos, far behind, as highlighted in several competitiveness surveys.

 “We have a high spirit of centrality, communalism and collectivism, so we don’t have to compete with one another. Instead, we can complement each other, so as to take steps collectively to lure investors,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the forum. “We need to tackle the fears of Western Europe and the US, which could affect other economies.”

 Anangga Roosdiono, chairman of ASEAN’s Business Advisory Council, cited the example of an “ASEAN product” as a form of complementary investment partnership, especially given the region’s plan to integrate economic activities by 2015 within the ASEAN Economic Community.

 “‘ASEAN products’ mean those things that are, for example, manufactured in Thailand, designed in Indonesia, and so on. So, there would no longer be products ‘made in Indonesia, Thailand or Singapore’, but rather ‘made in ASEAN’,” he said. “This idea should be discussed at the micro-, small- and medium-enterprises levels.”

 Indonesia excels at producing and processing raw materials, while Thailand excels at finishing them, and Singapore at marketing.