SME’s In Asean Need Incentives For Integration
Bernama, Malaysia
SME’s In Asean Need Incentives For Integration
By Mohd Nasir Yusoff
4 May 2008
NUSA DUA (Bali), May 4 (Bernama) — The development and growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) must be given extensive incentives in the integration of Asean economy, said International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
"Malaysia feels that SMEs in Asean should benefit from the Asean economic integration. In this context, we suggest that a detailed programme for SMEs be drawn up," the Malaysian minister told Bernama after attending an unofficial meeting of Asean economic ministers, here Saturday.
He said Malaysia also touched on greater cooperation among the private sectors in establishing Asean chambers of industry.
Muhyiddin said this was necessary to ensure that the private sector in Asean countries were not left out following the opening up of markets in the region as well as the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with Asean dialogue partners.
Asked about his vision on strengthening intra-Asean trade, he said intra-Asean trade was growing and expanding.
He said that in 2006, intra-Asean trade amounted to US352.8 billion which was an increase of 15.5 per cent from the 2005 figure of US$305.5 billion.
"This is a significant increase when compared to the intra-Asean trade in 1995 which stood at US123.8 billion," he said.
Muhyiddin said that under the economic integration initiatives, Asean countries continued to reduce import duty for intra-Asean trade.
He said currently, for intra-Asean trade between the six original members of Asean — Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand — import duty on 80 per cent of the goods had been abolished.
"The abolition of import duty alone will not help in increasing intra-Asean trade. For this purpose, Asean must continue to give emphasis on abolishing non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and facilitate trade," he said.
The work programme to identify and abolish NTBs which had been agreed upon by Asean ministers was a positive move in increasing intra-Asean trade.
In addition, Muhyiddin said, the implementation of the `Asean Single Window (ASW)’ to facilitate and speed up the process of releasing goods at the customs checkpoint would also contribute towards increasing trade.
Commenting further on the SMEs, he felt the involvement of the SMEs was important as between 80 and 90 per cent of the industries in Asean were SMEs.
As such, he pointed out that it was important that efforts be intensified to ensure that SMEs in Asean were actively involved in the process of the Asean regional economic integration as well as with the Asean trading partners.
"This will indirectly build up the capacity of the SMEs in Asean, particularly Malaysia, to compete at the regional level to widen their market which will also raise the volume of intra-Asean trade," Muhyiddin added.
