AEC To Make ASEAN Companies More Competitive

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 (Bernama) -- The formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will make the companies in the region more competitive and information technology-savvy, said Indonesian Minister of Development Planning, Sofyan Djalil. Sofyan said with the emergence of e-commerce as well as the participation of 'new blood' in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the AEC would become a more competitive platform. "The AEC will make the economy more flexible and the business community can find ways to compete," he said. He said this at a press conference at the 10th Asia Economic Summit here Friday. On the assistance provided to the SMEs, which Sofyan dubbed as the 'core economic players in the region', he said, the regional governments should extend both financial and market-access assistance to them. "For instance, Indonesia has provided a micro credit fund of 130 trillion rupiah (US$10 billion) to assist our SMEs," he said. Sofyan said Indonesia, the biggest economy in the region, could benefit it and at the same time be a competitor in terms of investment destination. Fortunately, he said, some ASEAN countries, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore and Indonesia were now complementing each other, he said. "This will make our economic integration better," he said. Sofyan, who represented Indonesian Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla, to deliver a keynote address, said Indonesia and Malaysia were strongly committed to achieve the AEC ideas and would pursue them accordingly. However, Jusuf said, the challenge was to boost intra-trade and cross-border investment activities among ASEAN countries which did not reflect the real potentials yet. "Through AEC, ASEAN will be able to create better environment for more economic activities among its member states," he said. On the importance of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the region, Jusuf hoped that Malaysia, as the APEC Chair of 2020, would continue the informal discussions towards a more synergized cooperation among regional and international blocs, like APEC, G-20 and the Pacific Alliance. --BERNAMA