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| ZAMBOANGA CITY HALL |
ZAMBOANGA CITY, May
14 (PNA) -– Preparations are underway for the holding of a forum on the ASEAN
Economic Community (AEC) in this city.
The preparation is
being spearheaded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) being the
designated chair of the AEC Task Force.
DTI Regional
Officer-in-Charge Sitti Amina Jain said Wednesday that the forum is scheduled
to be held in May 27 this year under the aegis of the Task Force on ASEAN
Integration of the Regional Development Council-9 (RDC-9).
Jain said that the
underlying objective of the forum is to raise the level of awareness about the
AEC and “its implications to our economy both at the regional and national
levels.”
Jain disclosed that
resource speakers from DTI-central office will be on hand during the forum in
the persons of Assistant Secretary Ceferino Rodolfo who will talk on the topic,
Advancing Philippine Engagement in AEC: The Philippine Status of Commitments.
Rodolfo will be
joined in by the DTI’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion Director Senen Perlada
who will discuss about ASEAN Integration: An Overview, and the Philippine Free
Trade Agreements (FTAs).
Jain said that
speakers from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in the
persons of Dr. Erlinda Medalla and Dr. Adoracion Navarro will discuss the
topics Achieving AEC 2015: Trade Liberalization and Facilitation; and,
Infrastructure and Logistics: Moving Toward AEC 2015, respectively.
She said that DTI
Undersecretary for the Regional Operations Group Zenaida Cuizon-Maglaya had
been invited to give the keynote message during the forum.
She said that all
local chief executives in the region had been invited to attend the forum,
which is a very important event.
Also invited are the
region’s business leaders and industry captains, regional and provincial heads
of national government agencies, the academe, non-government organization,
members of the press, and consumer organizations.
Jain, quoting a
passage in the ASEAN Economic Community Factbook, said that AEC 2015, in a
nutshell, is the aspiration of the ASEAN 10-member states for regional economic
integration by the year 2015.
Jain said the AEC
will have the following key features or characteristics: a single market and
production base; a highly competitive economic region; a region of equitable
economic development; and, a region fully integrated into the global economy.
ASEAN, which stands
for Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is composed of the Philippines,
Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Myanmar, and Lao People’s Democratic Republic. (PNA)
LAM/TPGJR/UTB
LAM/TPGJR/UTB
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