Asean - A Self-Sufficient Competitive Block

By Christine Lim KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 (Bernama) -- An Oxford Business Group editor says investors are now looking at Asean as a self-sufficient competitive block which allows the creation of a regional supply chain. Paulius Kuncinas, Regional Editor for Asia, said instead of the member countries competing against each other, more opportunities could be derived by embracing the grouping as one large community to leverage on specialisation and create economies of scale. "Investors are seeing Asean as a whole rather than individual stories," he told Bernama. "Despite the roadmap to the Asean Economic Community (AEC) which outlines the blueprint for a single market by 2015, there are still those who are sceptical about its implementation," he said. Kuncinas said investors were not clear if restrictions would be lifted as there were still protectionism tendency among Asean countries. "We see Asean having the potential to be like European Union during its best period before it broke down due to its failure in its social model," he said. Kuncinas is not advocating a single currency like the European Union. "Each country should retain its own monetary policy to respond to its own circumstances," he said. -- BERNAMA