Malaysia calls for cohesive economic measures among ASEAN members

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has called for cohesive economic measures among ASEAN member states to build socio-economic resilience in mitigating the impact of COVID-19, said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).

In a statement on June 27 on the 36th ASEAN Summit, the ministry said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had stressed that leaders, in moving beyond efforts to contain the pandemic in the region, must inculcate a similar sense of urgency to also push for economic recovery.

In his intervention, he said the public health crisis had had a profound impact on economies and rebooting the regional economy must be the grouping’s utmost priority to mitigate disruptions to trade and strengthen the resilience of the regional supply chain.

According to MITI, the prime minister made a strong case for governments to implement measures to establish “travel bubbles”, involving the easing of travel restrictions, between “green” ASEAN member states to shore up investments and create job opportunities.

Malaysia also broached the idea of opening up borders for intra-ASEAN tourism to flourish and provide financial boost to the region’s economies.

“Further, promoting intra-ASEAN travel and tourism will in turn generate commercial and business spin-offs that are key to restarting the economy,” MITI said.

On that note, Malaysia shared the view of the Sultan of Brunei and the president of Indonesia that Asean officials should begin work on establishing an ASEAN travel bubble and to explore the possibility of sectoral exemptions for travel restrictions such as medical tourism or high-value economic visits.

In 2019, ASEAN trade reached US$2.8 trillion (RM12.02 trillion), of which US$619.6 billion was intra-regional.

Meanwhile, China (with an 18% share of total ASEAN trade), the US (10.4%), the European Union (8.7%) and Japan (8%) remained as Asean’s largest trade partners.

The main investors of ASEAN were the US at 15.2%, Japan (12.7%), Hong Kong (7%) and China (5.7%)

Despite the challenges and uncertainty faced in 2019, and notwithstanding a decline in global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows by 1.4%, FDI inflows to ASEAN increased by 4.9% to US$160.6 billion last year.

Senior Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, who is the MITI minister, also participated in the ASEAN Leaders Interface Session with representatives of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) to discuss private-sector recommendations and feedback on the implementation of ASEAN economic cooperation.

During the session, Mohamed Azmin stressed that support from the business community is crucial to bolster government initiatives in dealing with COVID-19 and called for ASEAN to take the lead in pressing for a greater global battle and enhanced collaborative efforts to fight the pandemic, together with a concerted Regional Economic Recovery Plan.

As time is of the essence, he reiterated Muhyiddin’s call for the expeditious formulation of the recovery plan as this is crucial to achieve ASEAN’s objective of greater economic integration.

“Malaysia believes that acting in a cohesive and responsive manner is not an option, but indeed an utmost necessity for ASEAN economic revitalisation,” the statement said.

Malaysia, together with ASEAN colleagues and free trade agreement partners, will continue working towards the conclusion and signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this year which Malaysia believes would contribute to the deepening of regional economic integration and prosperity.

MITI said Mohamed Azmin had also underscored the imperative of enhancing ASEAN competitiveness in global trade and commerce through consistent capacity-building, including full adoption of digitalisation in all crucial areas of economic activity towards the realisation of a knowledge economy.

– Bernama