ASEAN ministers finalize blueprint to transform region into a boom zone by 2015

MANILA(AP): Southeast Asian economic ministers met Friday to finalize a blueprint to transform their region into a booming free trade zone by 2015, but warned it's not a magic wand to turn their bloc into "a Cinderella story."

While foreign investment flowed to a record high last year and the region has begun its march to freer trade, Southeast Asia still grapples with poverty, pockets of protectionism and daunting competition from economic powerhouses China and India.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations' blueprint aims to turn the sprawling region of 500 million people, roughly the European Union's market size, into an ASEAN economic community where goods, production assets, people and capital can move across borders freely.

Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila said there was no room for complacency as the region struggles to erect that community by 2015, five years ahead of the original 2020 schedule.

"The AEC blueprint is not a magic wand that will transform us from ashes to ballroom elegance, as in the case of the Cinderella story," Favila told an annual meeting of fellow ASEAN ministers in Manila.

"The key is our own willingness to share in the work, rather than just sit back and expect that the world owes us a living."

The blueprint seeks to strengthen the region enough to withstand financial and political shocks, he said.

Jose Concepcion, chairman of a business advisory council at work with ASEAN, said the region's efforts to liberalize trade and investment are long overdue.

"It took a long time, but they have begun to realize what it needed," Concepcion said.

Aside from the blueprint, expected to be approved by ASEAN's heads of state in a November summit in Singapore, the region's trade negotiators have been busy negotiating a flurry of free-trade deals with countries like China, Japan, South Korea and India.

ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong reported progress in talks with Japan and South Korea to create separate free-trade areas but said negotiations with India have run into a snag over the type of products, timeframe and levels of tariff reduction under a proposed deal. (**)