Asean turns to business councils

Leading the way: Amir Hamzah (left) and Bank Negara Malaysia governor Datuk Seri Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour co-chairing the 12th Asean Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: Amid the US tariff woes, Asean looks to foreign business councils for stronger cooperation and to help be their voice when dealing with their respective governments.

A series of meetings were held – the US-Asean Business Council (USABC), EU-Asean Business Coun­cil (EU-ABC) and Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean-BAC) on the sidelines of the 12th Asean Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting.

Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan acknow­ledged the important role business councils play to lobby their governments to do more.

“Our message to the USABC  is that you must help us because you are a representative of companies in Malaysia and Asean that will face challenges if this new regime is quite difficult. It will also affect your companies.

“We want you to represent us when you talk to the government as you are well aware of what we are doing in Asean to make businesses prosper,” he said at the sidelines of the meeting.

Amir Hamzah said Asean has received support from the various business councils, particularly from the USABC, which will play its part to ensure the grouping’s message is delivered.

As with the EU-ABC, Asean is looking more into  diversification, having more trade missions and promoting more Free Trade Agreements (FTA), he added.

Asean, said Amir Hamzah, will also get support, particularly from the European Union, in the form of technical support, financial ventures and joint ventures on climate change.

As for the Asean-BAC, one of the key areas of focus would be faci­litating inter-Asean business oppor­tunities to spur foreign direct investments and simplifying regulations to promote the ease  of doing business. 

In the face of turmoil, Asean countries have come to embrace the fact that this would bring them closer together, which according to  Amir Hamzah was a good sign.

“Asean is still one of the better growing regions that has a lot of potential and strengthening trade within the region is the way to go, including through cross-border payment connectivity,” he said.

A meeting took place on April 7 between senior Asean officials and the United States (US) Depart­ment of the Treasury (UST) deputy assistant secretary for Asia, Robert Kaproth.

Kaproth had presented the policy outlook and also discussed the effects of the new tariff ann­oun­cement to Asean.

The 24% tariff on Malaysian goods entering the United States started on April 9 as Trump announced new import duties against its trading partners.

This is part of a broad trade policy targeting countries which have large trade deficits with the US.

It, however, does not cover all Malaysian goods exported to the US.