As announced by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Intellectual
Property Offices, their Patent Examination Co-operation
(ASPEC) programme has now been enhanced, after a regular review at a working
group meeting in Bangkok in November last year.
When the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and European Union held a meeting in Brunei on April 27, emphasis was
laid on the on-going negotiation of free trade agreements between the two
regions.
At the recent 20th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia, its leaders welcomed the entry into force of the ASEAN Comprehensive
Investment Agreement.
In Phnom Penh, on April 3-4 2012, at the 20th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit, its member states acknowledged the significance of the progress
that has been made in the implementation of the roadmap towards an ASEAN Economic
Community by 2015.
Having finalized new legislation and completed all but one bilateral negotiation necessary
to join the World Trade Organization, Laos is pushing to receive approval to accede
to the trade organization by the start of next year.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations economic ministers, at the
conclusion of their meeting in Myanmar, noted the developments in the implementation
of various initiatives aimed at establishing the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.
The Sub-Committee on Least Developed Countries, on January 20, agreed to start
work on developing recommendations to “further strengthen, streamline and operationalize”
current guidelines on the accession process of LDCs, as called for in a decision
by the Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference last month.
Vriens and Partners, an Asia-focused corporate advisory firm, has issued its 2011
‘Good Governance for International Business’ index of 19 economies
in the Asia-Pacific region, in which Singapore has edged out Hong Kong for the
number one position.
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao, in his speech to the 14th Association of Southeast
Asian Nations Plus Three Summit in Bali on November 18, 2011, proposed
that the participating countries should look to accelerate and deepen regional
trade liberalisation and facilitation.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in its World Investment
Report 2011, points out that, while global foreign direct investment has
not yet bounced back to pre-crisis levels, some regions, and particularly Asia,
show a better recovery than others.
Indonesian Minister of Finance Agus Martowardojo has urged members of the ASEAN
trade bloc to implement reforms to establish greater financial sector integration
between nations, including through easing tax and non-tax barriers and setting
up frameworks to mitigate criminality.
In the run-up to the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit
later this month in Jakarta, more than 200 participants from the
business community, government and academia, have met in a major symposium to
formulate concrete recommendations on what can be done to strengthen small and
medium-sized entities in the region.
Karel De Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, in his closing remarks to
the first ever Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union Business Summit, has said that the European Commission’s ultimate goal
is a free trade agreement with the region.
Following a meeting in Indonesia, the Finance Ministers of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations have established a forum on taxation involving
the tax authorities of all member states.
The meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Ministers, held on August 24-25, 2010, in Da Nang, Vietnam, reaffirmed their resolve
to ensure the realization of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.
Following the entry into force of India’s free
trade agreement in goods with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from January 1 this year, the Indian government is now lobbying for its extension to trade in services.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, meeting in Vietnam
for the 16th ASEAN Summit on April 8-9, 2010, reaffirmed their strong commitment
to speed up the effective implementation of the roadmap towards an ASEAN Economic
Community.
The World Bank’s recent East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, entitled
‘Emerging Stronger from the Crisis’, looks for deeper regional integration
in the area, particularly through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its regional free trade agreements.
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