| dc.description.abstract | In November 2004, at the 10th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR, the Economic
Ministers of ASEAN and China signed the Agreement on Trade in Goods (TIG) of the
Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN
and China. This occasion is a major step towards the realisation of an ACFTA for
goods, which is set to be established by 2010 for ASEAN 6 and China, and by 2015
for the newer ASEAN Member States.
This ACFTA in goods would soon be augmented by services and investments
with negotiations on agreements on these relevant areas being aggressively pursued
in 2005. Outright, this ACFTA will create an economic region with 1.7 billion
consumers, a regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about US$2 trillion and
total trade estimated at US$1.23 trillion. This makes it the biggest FTA in the world
in terms of population size. And as any in other FTA, the ACFTA will bolster ASEANChina
trade, which has risen at a dramatic pace, indicating the growing economic
interdependence of ASEAN and China. The formation of an ASEAN-China Investment
Area should also aid in generating more investments for ASEAN. Not only will more
ASEAN and Chinese companies be willing to investment within the integrated market,
since market risk and uncertainty are lowered, but US, European and Japanese
companies, which are interested in making inroads into the Asian market, will also be
attracted to invest in the integrated market.
As such, the integration of ASEAN with China can entice more foreign
corporations, which each market alone cannot otherwise attract. With a larger
market, more intense competition, increased investment and economies of scale,
investors will be more inclined to locate in the integrated region | en_US |
