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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had made a giant leap toward completing the economic integration process by resetting the deadline five years ahead of the previous schedule, ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said in a recent interview.

The ASEAN had two very important reasons for bringing forward the dateline of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community from 2020 to 2015, Ong told Xinhua.

"We believe that by 2014 many of the FTA (free trade area) negotiations with other countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand will be completed," he said. "It means that ASEAN markets have already committed (themselves) to certain sets of requirements for the FTA. Why do we have to wait until 2020 if we can finish all these FTAs by 2014 or 2015."

Ong said the second reason for ASEAN to shorten its economic integration schedule was to "encourage ASEAN countries to be more active in doing internal changes."

"2020 is far away, people can still wait and take the time and then you don't get a lot of good results and then the negotiations for FTAs with other countries will also suffer a delay. We moved the date from 2020 to 2015 and now everybody in ASEAN knows they cannot delay anymore," said Ong, who has been leading the 10-member bloc since January 2003.

He said the rescheduling had received favorable responses from businesses in the region.

The goal is to establish ASEAN as a single market and production base so that it can become a more dynamic and stronger segment of the global supply chain.

However, concern remains over the less-developed countries in the region in terms of catching up with their wealthier neighbors.

"We have some countries that are developed, some countries not so developed. This is true that we have a gap, and the gap is quite big. The important thing today is to improve the transportation in all the countries, to improve the infrastructure," said Ong.

Apart from the need for an improvement of the infrastructures in the member countries, Ong pointed out that some economies that used to be centralized needed "a lot of officials who understand how to upgrade the system in the open market," adding that the ASEAN had been offering the appropriate training.

With the regional economic integration process now at top speed, Ong dismissed suggestions that the ASEAN was walking on the same path as the European Union (EU).

"The EU has a common currency, they also have free movement of people. We don't think Southeast Asian countries are ready to do that," he said.

"What we are seeing (in ASEAN) is more the movement of professional people, skilled people. We cannot be like the EU which (allows) free movement of people," he said. "Many of our countries are still relatively insecure, and if you have complete free movement of people, you can see thousands more coming into a small country or thousands more going where the market is good, The local population may not be ready to welcome this competition from another guy next door."

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2006)