A

SEAN deputy secretary-general Pushpanathan Sundram said Saturday he expected private companies across the region and from dialogue partner countries to be more actively engaged in the drive to integrate the region economically.

He said it was important for ASEAN to listen directly to responses and feedback from the private sector on the implementation of measures stipulated in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) blueprint.

“We have provided several channels for ASEAN officials and the private sector such as consultations and business dialogue with industry associations, business councils from ASEAN and partner countries,” he said at the ASEAN Trade Facilitation Forum in Manado, North Sulawesi.

The forum was held by the Indonesian Trade Ministry, the US Mission to ASEAN and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on the sidelines of the 43rd ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEMM).

Sundram said that despite positive progress in the implementation of AEC blueprint measures, several challenges remained, such as how to ensure the timely implementation of measures and track their impact.

“It is also necessary to have mechanisms to handle issues such as coordination at national and regional levels,” he said.

During his presentation, Sundram reported that ASEAN was nearing full economic integration. As of July this year, 73.43 percent of all measures in the AEC blueprint had been implemented, the ASEAN Secretariat reported.

“By the end of this year, we still have around 114 measures that have to be implemented in the second phase of economic integration,” Sundram said, adding that after 2011, ASEAN would be ready to enter the third and fourth phases of integration.

The Secretariat says tariffs on 99.65 of traded goods in the six ASEAN founding countries (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) had been fully removed, while for Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam (CMLV), 98.86 percent of tariffs had been reduced to between 0 and 5 percent.

Sundram said ASEAN member states were also pushing for discussions to reduce non-tariff barriers, particularly regarding standards and conformity.

Member states have made initiatives to create common standards for agricultural, automotive, electrical and electronic, healthcare and rubber-based products.

Responding to Sundrams’s presentation, the president of the Indonesian Cosmetics Association, Nuning S. Barwa, said despite all efforts to remove barriers, products from Indonesia still faced much difficulty entering markets in neighboring countries.