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| 25 AUGUST 2007 | ||
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| 25 AUGUST 2007 | ||
| PGMA hails approval of ASEAN Economic Community blueprint |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday
commended the economic ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) for approving the draft ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the
blueprint for the integration of the region’s economy. The AEC draft will be presented to the ASEAN heads of state during the 13th ASEAN Leaders’ Summit in Singapore this coming November. “Congratulations for continuing to steer a vibrant future for the entire region, especially with your accomplishment of the draft ASEAN Economic Community,” the President said during the dinner she hosted for the ASEAN economic ministers and senior economic officials at the Rizal Hall of Malacanang Friday evening. The end goal of economic integration of the region as outlined in the ASEAN Vision 2020, the draft AEC was approved during the 39th Meeting of the ASEAN Economic Ministers in Makati City. ASEAN has embarked on an ambitious integration process that will culminate in the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. Under the AEC, ASEAN would become a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy. “And I thank you for keeping the momentum of integration into one seamless economy. We have already taken the first step to creating this community through the drafting of the ASEAN Charter, of which I congratulate you because the ASEAN Economic Community blueprint is now done,” the President said. For ASEAN to truly expand as an economic union, the regional grouping should also continue to nurture its relations with key partners such as China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union, the President said. She pointed out that deepening economic integration of the region would mean hard work in completing and eventually forging the individual Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that ASEAN is currently negotiating with its key partners. “And I commend you, not only for completing the ASEAN Economic Community blueprint, but for the important task of following through our commitments and in bringing forth a speedy conclusion to pending FTA negotiations,” the President said. She added that when the FTAs are implemented, ASEAN would become a zone of prosperity wired to the global economy providing a more stable, secure, and prosperous life for all its peoples. |
