BIMP-EAGA ministers to update dev’t road map

DAVAO CITY — Ministers from the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia- Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) have agreed to review next year the sub-region’s road map to development. In a joint statement released at the ministerial meeting at the Marco Polo Hotel Friday, the ministers noted the 2006-2010 plan will be reviewed "to ensure that the priority projects continue to be relevant." The signatories were Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng, second minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei; Tan Sri Da’i Bachtiar, special envoy for EAGA of the Republic of Indonesia; Senator Dato’ Haji Abdul Raman bin Suliman, deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s department of Malaysia; presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza; and Antonio Santos, chairman of the BIMP-EAGA Business Council, the private sector representative. BIMP-EAGA is an economic subgroup of the larger 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The ministers commended the action of the transport, infrastructure and information and communications committees for enhancing transport connectivity, particularly on the implementation of the fifth freedom rights that allows airlines to land in another airport and pick up passengers along the way to other destinations. The ministers also supported initiatives of harmonizing policies on Customs, immigration, quarantine and security procedures, and "improving border formalities" in the pilot ports that cover General Santos City-Bitung, Indonesia; Zamboanga City-Sandakan, Malaysia; Muara, Brunei-Labuan, Malaysia; and Entikong, Indonesia-Tebedu, Malaysia. "These transport initiatives will promote the rapid development of a multi-modal transport system in EAGA and facilitate the freer movement of people, goods and services across borders in the sub-region," the joint statement said. The ministers said they have called on their senior officials "to strengthen coordination with relevant national and local government institutions so that prompt action can be taken on the recommendations by the clusters and the private sector, and to undertake necessary policy improvements wherever relevant." Formed in 1994, the sub-region was first conceptualized to increase intra-trading and preserving the cultures of the areas identified with it. But the four countries failed to harmonize their policies, which is a necessary factor in enhancing intra-trade. In 1997 as Asia felt the initial effects of the global financial crisis, prime movers of the sub-region, including former senator Vicente Paterno who headed the private sector, proposed that instead of intra-trade, the sub-region should look for a bigger market by promoting common products. Harmonizing policies and standards remains a ticklish issue to this day, but Antonio Santos, chairman of the business council, said recent developments in air linkages and other modes of cooperation are expected to push the consolidation attempt to take off. - Carmelito Q. Francisco/BusinessWorld