South-east Asia signs community deal
SOUTH-EAST Asian nations yesterday established a formal community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of $2.6 trillion (R36.2trln).
The community declaration was signed by leaders of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in Kuala Lumpur, this year’s host of the group’s annual summit.
The Asean community includes a political, security and socio-cultural dimension in a region with governments ranging from communist in Vietnam and quasi-military in Myanmar to the kingdom of Brunei and the boisterous democracy of the Philippines.
But it is the economic community that offers the most concrete opportunities for integration in a region whose combined gross domestic product would make it the seventhlargest economy.
“We have virtually eliminated tariff barriers between us,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said. “Now we have to assure freer movements and removal of barriers that hinder growth and investment.”
The countries aim to harmonise economic strategies, recognise each other’s professional qualifications, and consult more closely on macroeconomic and financial policies.
They have also agreed to enhance the connectivity of their transportation infrastructure and communications, better facilitate electronic transactions, integrate industries to promote regional sourcing, and enhance private sector involvement in the economy.
Eight groups of professionals will be able to work more easily throughout the region: engineers, architects, nurses, doctors, dentists, accountants, surveyors and tourism professionals.
South China Sea
Following the signing ceremony, Asean leaders met with eight others from Asia and the Pacific for the annual East Asia summit: the US, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.
US President Barack Obama was set to raise concerns at the summit about China’s more assertive posture in the South China Sea.
On Saturday, at a bilateral meeting with Asean leaders, Obama said countries should stop building artificial islands and militarising their claims in the disputed South China Sea.
China has been transforming reefs in the Spratly archipelago into artificial islands, on which it has built airfields and other facilities. This has caused ripples of alarm in much of East Asia about China’s intentions and freedom of navigation in a waterway through which $5trln in ship-borne trade passes yearly.
China insists it has undisputed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, a claim that overlaps with four Asean countries.
The US has sent military ships and war planes near China’s artificial islands in recent weeks to assert its “freedom of navigation” in the sea.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said countries outside the region were conducting “a highprofile intervention”, turning the South China Sea disputes into “a problem concerning the South China Sea’s peace and stability and the freedom of navigation”, the state news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying late on Saturday.
“That is in nobody’s interest,” Li said, calling for talks between “directly concerned countries” on the issue. – Reuters BLACKROCK, the largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), attracted $100.1 billion (R1.39 trillion) into its global iShares business in 2015, bringing in money at the fastest pace of any year in its history. For the first time, the firm saw roughly equal deposits into equity and fixedincome ETFs as investor demand for bond products increased, New York-based BlackRock said on Friday. Its European-listed iShares attracted a record $27.8bn to November 19, topping their previous high from 2008, when they ended the year with $25.3bn in net new cash. “We’re thrilled investors have entrusted us with record flows this year,” Mark Wiedman, the global head of iShares, said. “We’re seeing our clients expanding the use of ETFs in their portfolios, from longterm, core investments and as tools to express a view on almost any market.” BlackRock’s iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF took in the most net new business of any single fund in the line-up, pulling in $6.9bn. – Bloomberg
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