EU Ready To Share Experience On "Connectivity" With ASEAN

By Farhana Poniman KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (Bernama) -- The European Union (EU) is ready to share with ASEAN its experience and expertise on "connectivity", which is crucial in establishing a successful trading bloc. Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the EU to Malaysia, Luc Vandebon, said intensifying connectivity within the region would translate into eliminating barriers among ASEAN countries. "There are no other partners in the world that ASEAN can discuss with on the topic of regional connectivity in terms of creating a single market, as well as in the areas of aviation, research and higher education. "This is an area where the EU has unique experience and expertise," Vandebon said in his keynote address at the 4th ASEAN-EU Business Summit 2015 here Sunday. The one-day business summit, jointly organised by the EU-ASEAN Business Council and the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was held alongside the 47th ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting (AEM). Vandebon said that the EU, which pledged to invest more in ASEAN and to engage with the region politically, strategically and economically, would more than double its assistance to ASEAN to US$194.54 million (170 million euros). "The rise of Asia is possibly the most important economic and political story of our time while the 10 countries of ASEAN are playing an important role in that rise," he added. Europe is now ASEAN's second largest trading partner with trade in goods alone amounting to some US$972.82 billion (850 billion euros) in the last five years. Europe is also the biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) for ASEAN with total FDI stock held by EU businesses and institutions now exceeding US$178.54 billion (156 billion euros). On a separate note, EU-ASEAN Business Council Executive Director, Chris Humphrey said the depreciation in several ASEAN currencies will not deter the European Union from investing in Southeast Asia. On the contrary, Humphrey noted that trade between the two regions show no signs of slowing down with European businesses keen to plough more money into the region. The EU, which is one of the largest sources of foreign direct investments into ASEAN, saw its trade with Southeast Asia grow by a nine per cent annually over the last few years. This was remarkable in view of the challenges facing ASEAN such as tumbling oil prices and currency volatility, he told a press conference here at the Fourth ASEAN-EU Business Summit 2015. He said that EU companies were committed to investing in the region for the long-haul with the depreciation in several regional currencies being a boon rather than a liability to European businesses investing in Southeast Asia. "The (depreciation of currencies) might be worrying to some people but is certainly not holding back EU businesses," he said at the business summit which was held alongside the 47th ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting (AEM). Echoing Humphrey's sentiment, Robert Bosch Southeast Asian operations President, Martin Hayes, said the engineering multinational corporation company was not seeing any significant effect from declining regional currencies to its business. "As an MNC, we have operations in more than 160 countries, so we can deploy manufacturing activities to where we need it to be at that time to any of our plants," he added. Turning to Malaysia, EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman, Fermin Fautsch, said it planned to promote the country to European small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) as a strategic gateway to ASEAN. He said the availability of high-skilled talent and the thriving high value-added industry here would make it sustainable for the long-term, attract more FDIs and withstand any currency volatility. "While we are seeing some outflows of manufacturing activity from Malaysia to countries like Vietnam and Myanmar, the country's focus on high value-added sector has managed to attract more quality FDIs," he said. --BERNAMA