From left: Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Philippine’s President Benigno Aquino, Laos’ President Choummaly Sayasone, Obama, Brunei’s Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, and Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo. / AFP / MANDEL NGAN
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Barack Obama on Tuesday is to announce a package of measures designed to boost Southeast Asian economies, betting that the fast-growing region can be an ever more important trade partner.
The plan will establish three offices — in Jakarta, Bangkok and Singapore — to boost the US government’s “economic engagement with ASEAN institutions,” officials said.
The White House sees the 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — representatives of which have been meeting with Obama since Monday in California — as an emerging regional counterweight to China’s regional dominance.
Collectively the countries are the fourth-largest trading partner for the United States.
According to White House figures, “two-way trade in goods and services has tripled since the 1990s, topping $254 billion in 2014,” supporting around half a million US jobs.
“We have an increasingly deep and broad economic relationship with ASEAN,” said US ambassador to ASEAN Nina Hachigian.
ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
While Southeast Asian economies are youthful and fast-growing, many sectors remain the under the control of government special interests.
But countries like Indonesia are beginning to open up. Its president Joko Widodo recently announced steps to open the economy to foreign investment that were welcomed in Washington.
The new “US-ASEAN Connect” package will include technical advice on how countries like Indonesia and the Philippines can prepare to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a vast Pacific-wide trade deal that is in the process of being ratified.
Other measures will focus on improving trade ties in the communications and infrastructure sectors among others, streamlining current government programs.
It will also address the power sector, an area where China has been especially active, building dams along the upper Mekong.
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