Southeast Asia Speeds Single Market Plan

Malaysia Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, center, helps his Minister of Trade and Industry Rafidah Aziz, as ASEAN Economic Ministers look on while getting down from the stage after the opening of the 38th ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations should harmonize domestic trade laws fast enough to turn the region into a single economic community by 2015, five years ahead of schedule, Malaysia's prime minister said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) (Andy Wong - AP)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Southeast Asian trade ministers seeking to blunt growing competition from China and India agreed Tuesday to an accelerated timetable to turn their region into a European-style economic community by 2015, the bloc's secretary-general said.

The 10-member ASEAN had previously aimed to create a single market allowing the free flow of goods, services and investment across the region by 2020. It does not call for a single currency system.

But Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia wanted to move up the target date for the ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC, by five years to ensure the region stays competitive against China and India, which have been luring foreign investment away from Southeast Asia.

"We all agreed that we should move in that direction," trade bloc official Ong Keng Yong told reporters idelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting.

ASEAN trade ministers agreed to "use that accelerated calendar to make our respective economies more efficient, more effective" to meet competition, he said.

The ministers will present the new timetable to their leaders, who are expected to endorse it when they meet in Cebu, Philippines, at their summit at the end of the year.

"In essence, there is an agreement to do that but we must now crystalize how we go about it," Malaysia's Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said.

Malaysia will draw up a document on measures that ASEAN must take to meet the 2015 target, Rafidah said.

In Europe, the European Union is a formidable trade group that includes 25 nations, and 12 of them share a common currency _ the euro.

Foreign direct investment into ASEAN rose to a record $38 billion last year, surpassing levels last seen before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. It still remains far behind China, which attracts around $50 billion in foreign investment annually.

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said that "everybody agrees" on accelerating the plans, but that "it's now a question of how to achieve it."

Earlier in the day, Malaysian leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the bloc needs to harmonize domestic trade laws if it wants to fuse its economies into a single market by 2015.