Philippines prepares for regional economic integration by ’15

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines will be focusing on beefing up regulatory reforms in various sectors, in preparation for integration into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.

“Regulatory reform is key to this endeavor. Strengthening our regulatory environment will reinforce our integration within Asean and provide us access to the opportunities being offered in the ongoing regional integration efforts,” Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. said in a statement.

Government agencies in charge of instituting regulatory reforms in the country include the Board of Investments, Department of Transportation and Communications, National Telecommunications Commission and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Cristobal heads to Jakarta this week to represent the country in the Asean High-Level Task Force on Asean Economic Integration (HLTF-EI) meeting, which aims to discuss where the region is now in the ongoing integration efforts.

Among the issues to be discussed during the meeting are the AEC scorecard and the evolving regional landscape, brought about by the various free trade agreements (FTAs) that had come into force in the past two years.

The meeting will also tackle best practices in regulatory reforms being implemented in various member-countries, including the Philippines.

Right now, Cristobal said the process of achieving regional integration by 2015 was still on track.

“It is important and strategic for the Philippines to be part of an integrated region. Strengthening Asean means benefits to our economy in terms of increased access to markets such as New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, India, and Korea,” Cristobal said, referring to the countries with which the Philippines had FTAs, either via the Asean or bilaterally.

The AEC is designed to make the Asean a single market and production base, a competitive economic bloc and a fully integrated global economy.