Stronger together: Tengku Zafrul (fourth from right) launching the Regional Socialisation of the AEC Strategic Plan event at Menara MITI in Kuala Lumpur. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Asean offers a stable and predictable environment for various businesses to thrive, says Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
“These are features that businesses and investors desperately need but other regions cannot easily replicate.
“Those attributes are set to help Asean become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030,” he said in his speech at the Regional Socialisation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) Strategic Plan 2026-2030 event yesterday.
“Regardless of where global trends lead, Asean member states remain committed to supporting a transparent, free, fair and inclusive rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at its core,” he added.
Tengku Zafrul noted that globalisation, once the driving force behind Asean’s integration into global value chains and economic growth, is being upended by recent geopolitical tensions, as well as trade and tariff wars.
“As the global order is being reshaped, the only certainty is uncertainty – of course, this is not conducive for business growth and investor confidence.
“This, in turn, poses serious risks to Asean’s growth, resilience, security and long-term potential.
“Amid these challenges, Asean must recalibrate its post-2025 economic integration framework. Today’s challenging landscape calls for agility over aggressive growth, and resilience over radical expansion,” he said.
Tengku Zafrul added that the AEC Strategic Plan is key to realising the regional bloc’s aspiration of becoming a single market and production base, driven by competitiveness, inclusivity and sustainable growth.
“Structured in five-year cycles until 2045, it will keep Asean’s policies current and updated, so we can be more responsive to evolving business needs and emerging challenges,” he said.
“As the first instalment of this long-term vision, the AEC Strategic Plan 2026-2030 serves as a comprehensive roadmap outlining a clear and actionable path forward.
“This has been carefully developed to implement the economic aspects of the Asean Community Vision 2045, by harnessing Asean’s vast opportunities and potential.
“Through the AEC Strategic Plan, Asean aspires to significantly enhance intra-Asean trade by boosting the interconnectedness of the single market for goods, services, and investments.
“By further reducing persistent non-trade barriers, we can realise the fuller potential of intra-Asean trade.
“This will strengthen Asean’s competitiveness and build greater resilience against external shocks.”
According to Tengku Zafrul, the plan demonstrates Asean’s readiness to embrace transformation, enhance connectivity and promote innovation, anchored on the core principles of sustainability and inclusivity.
It also emphasises establishing a forward-looking digital economic framework expected to double Asean’s digital economy to reach US$2 trillion (RM8.4 trillion) by 2030.
Despite isolationist policies by some parts of the global economy, the AEC Strategic Plan strongly reinforces the regional bloc’s commitment to market openness and proactive engagement with external partners.
“Asean seeks to enhance engagements with not only traditional markets and established dialogue partners, but also new markets, for our goods, services and investments. This will reduce over-dependence on selected economies, thereby strengthening Asean’s macroeconomic resilience,” he said.
Dr Ahmad Zafarullah Abdul Jalil, director of the Asean Integration Monitoring Directorate, Asean Economic Community Department of the Asean Secretariat, said the AEC outlined six Strategic Goals, 44 Objectives and 192 Strategies.
“The strategic goals outline what kind of community we want to become by 2045. We want to become an action-oriented community; a sustainable community; an enterprising, bold and innovative community; an adaptable and pro-active community; a nimble and resilient community and an inclusive participatory and collaborative community,” he said during the context-setting session.
“The strategic plans outline the measures we need to take in order to achieve all these strategic goals,” he said, adding that documents would be released over the years to articulate in a more detailed manner how Asean would achieve these goals.
At a press conference later, Tengku Zafrul said that despite the geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, there have been no cancellations of foreign investments in Malaysia.
“The ones already in Malaysia continue to stay, and those committed have not pulled out, but those yet to commit are now thinking,” he said.
Tengku Zafrul, who is slated to visit the United States next week, said the main goal for Malaysia’s negotiations with President Donald Trump’s administration would be on reducing the 24% tariff on Malaysian goods exported to the United States.
He added that the government also aims to negotiate for lower than 10% tariffs for exports from certain sectors.
“A lot of things we do actually strengthen and complement US businesses both in the United States and Malaysia. So, it is a win-win relationship,” he said.
