Growing trade links
Malaysia inks Asean-HK FTA with regional counterparts in Manila.
MANILA: Malaysia signed the first trade deal on the sidelines of the 31st Asean Summit as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak arrived here for the start of a gruelling series of meetings.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed inked the Asean-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement (FTA) together with his regional counterparts.
“It’s a good deal for Asean because it gives member countries access to Hong Kong’s services sector. Our companies will be able to do business at favourable terms in areas like education, distribution, environment and telecommunications,” he said.
Mustapa also met 20 other trade ministers to try to resuscitate the faltering Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Negotiations to create the world’s largest trade bloc had stalled after four-and-a-half years, but there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel.
“We agreed that a leaders’ RCEP (meeting) will be convened soon to try to thrash out issues and to reach a compromise,” he said, adding Malaysia would be represented by the Prime Minister.
Fresh from an eventful Apec meeting in Vietnam, Najib arrived here with a high-powered delegation and will face a punishing schedule that includes 10 other secondary summits as well as bilateral meetings on the sidelines.
Najib arrived at Clark Airbase and spent almost two hours on the road before reaching his hotel. He barely had any time for rest before holding a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.
Both leaders later attended the Special Gala Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Asean at the SMX Convention Centre. Najib was accompanied by his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
The opening ceremony of the Asean Summit starts today at the Cultural Centre of the Philippines and this will be followed by the convening of the actual summit.
As this year marks the historical 50th anniversary, the summit will be an opportune occasion for Asean leaders to deliberate on the implementation of a lasting roadmap to ensure an integrated, peaceful, sta- ble and resilient regional community.
The Asean Summit is expected to adopt 56 outcome documents. A key document will be the Asean consensus on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers, which will be signed by the leaders.
Apart from this, the summit involving Asean dialogue partners, the East Asia Summit (EAS) is also expected to adopt several outcome documents, including a declaration of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism which was proposed by Australia.
Another key document will be the leaders’ declaration on preventing and countering the spread of terrorist ideology.
This declaration, proposed by Russia, will demonstrate the growing concern about the spread of extremist propaganda and to give a strong signal to the Asia-Pacific community on the resolve of the EAS countries in fighting terrorism and its ideology.
On the same day, the Asean plus one summits will kick off with the convening of the Asean-US 40th Anniversary Commemorative Summit. This will be followed by the Asean plus one summits with China, South Korea, Japan and the United States.