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ndonesia and several neighboring countries in ASEAN have agreed to intensify connectivity as the region gears up for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of this year with the goal of a single market, free movement of services, goods, capital, investment and skilled labor .

The agreement was achieved after they concluded talks on subregional forums '€” the ninth Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit and the 11th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines - The East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Summit '€” on Tuesday in Langkawi, Malaysia, a day after the 26th ASEAN Summit ended on Monday.

Besides highlighting the Malaka Strait as an essential area of connectivity that bordered the three countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the forum also pledged to boost tourism, energy and investment during the IMT-GT Summit.

'€œEveryone will reap benefits [from improving connectivity], not to mention ahead of the implementation of the AEC,'€ Kalla told reporters after the meeting.

Each country is mulling plans to connect water transportation and airlines in the area to support tourism and connectivity.

The forum noted three famous tourism spots in the Malaka Strait namely Bintan Island in Indonesia, Phuket Island in Thailand and Langkawi Island in Malaysia.

In terms of energy, the three countries are still discussing plans to connect their respective electricity infrastructures, for example, between Riau in Indonesia and Malacca in Malaysia.

'€œMalacca can use daytime electricity and Sumatra can receive power at night; so there is interconnection [under the plan],'€ Kalla said, adding that the plan, so far, covered around 600 megawatts of electricity.

Coordinating Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil said that, despite the figures still being relatively low, the value of trilateral trade among the Malaka Strait countries had shown increases since 2005.

'€œWe'€™ve seen quite a significant increase in trade volume, for example, since 2005, although the figure is still relatively small,'€ he said.

Trade between the three countries in the Malaka Strait amounted to more than US$600 million in 2014, a slight increase from around $500 million in 2012, Sofyan said.

However, Kalla estimated the service sector would have greater potential than trilateral trade.

During the BIMP-EAGA Summit, the four countries '€” Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines '€” agreed to speed up each country'€™s development projects on roads and sea transportation with the objective of boosting connectivity.

The meeting, Kalla added, also discussed efforts to improve the agriculture sectors in each country, with the intention of transforming the region into '€œthe food basket of Asia'€ while also achieving food sustainability in ASEAN.