Barriers to Asean promise

Networking to innovate: Asean Business Club (ABC), together with Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean-BAC) inked a memorandum of cooperation with nine Japanese business associations to form the Asean-Japan Innovation Network (AJIN) in Tokyo yesterday. In a group photo at the event were Tan Sri Munir Majid, president of ABC (front row, fourth from right), Kazuo Ohmori, chairman of Sumimoto Corp and vice-chairman of Asean-Japan Business Council (front row, fifth from right), and Jose Maria Salvador A. Concepcion III, chairman of Asean-BAC (front row, sixth from right). Also present were International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (back row, second from left), heads of Japanese business associations that are members of AJIN as well as visiting Asean Economic Ministers.

IT is true that with a total gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.7 trillion, Asean is the seventh largest economy in the world – if it were one economy.

It is also true that if the Asean GDP reached US$9.2 trillion by 2050, it would be the world’s fourth largest economy.