ASEAN should Drive Economic Pact to its Conclusion, Says Malaysia Official

TODAY

03 March 2016

“The Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) has to drive the evolving regional economic architecture,” said a senior Malaysian civil servant yesterday. “And to do so, the grouping first needs to go beyond the perception that two major regional trade treaties, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are driven by China and the United States respectively.

“We have to dispel the notion that RCEP is China-driven. RCEP was conceived by ASEAN, not by China. Likewise, TPP is seen to be US-driven, but the concept of TPP started with four small countries and people tend to forget that,” said Ms Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria, the secretary-general of the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry in an interview with TODAY, after speaking at “The ASEAN Advantage: Building Successful Business in ASEAN” programme organised by Nanyang Business School and S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies yesterday.

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