Asean needs to fine tune policies on services trade

To establish a single market economy by 2015 and turn the region into an investment haven, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) should start harmonizing policies on trade in services. The services sector has been driving economic growth in most Asean member states since the group developed its own liberalization policy parallel to that of the World Trade Organization's, Subash Bose Pillai, director for market integration of the Asean's economic community department, said. The overall share of the services sector to the gross domestic product of Asean economies was 45.9 percent. The Asean share of global trade in commercial services was 5 percent of global total or $343 billion in 2009, surpassing the share of such economies as Brazil, Russia, India and China whose average individual shares range from 1 to 4 percent. As Asean countries continue to attract foreign direct investments (FDI), Pillai said that the services sector is key to establishing a single market economy, considering that the sector accounted for more than 50 percent of the total FDI inflows into the region. The free flow of services is integral towards Asean economic integration, the official said. "Asean has drawn up a services liberalization roadmap under the Asean Economic Community Blueprint that has targets and timelines for services liberalization toward 2015," Pillai said. A liberalized services sector could attract rich economies into forging free trade agreements. Asean groups the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, and Myanmar. —VS, GMANews.TV