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Stressing that closer economic cooperation among East Asian
countries is the key to increased prosperity, Vice President Jusuf
Kalla has urged businesspeople and government officials to find ways of
overcoming the obstacles hindering economic integration.
Speaking Thursday during an international symposium on the possible
establishment of an East Asian Free Trade Area, Kalla warned that
gaping income disparities between the countries of the region, as well
as differing legal and governmental systems, and levels of
infrastructural development, could present major hurdles to greater
integration.
A number of countries, he said, had per capita incomes of less than
US$1,000 while others had per capita incomes of more than $20,000.
"It's like the chicken and the egg. It could be a problem if we pursue
economic cooperation without closing the gap first, but it will take
years to overcome the gap. So, the challenge is how to find a
harmonious way of achieving both," he told the symposium, organized by
the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Japan
Economic Foundation (JEF).
Leaders from the region floated the idea of creating an East Asian
Community during the first East Asian Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
last year.
The leaders from the ASEAN countries, plus China, South Korea, Japan,
India, Australia and New Zealand, will meet again next month in Cebu,
the Philippines, to discuss how to proposal could be implemented.
Many say that the 16 countries together could overtake other groupings,
including the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area as
it would account for half of the world's population, or more than 3
billion people, and a quarter of the world's total GDP of about US$8.3
trillion.
Kalla said he strongly supported greater regional economic cooperation
as the ASEAN) countries, including Indonesia, faced strong competition
not only from countries like the United States, but also from big
neighbors like China, Japan and South Korea.
Another challenge, Kalla said, was how to combine different levels of
technological advancement, human resources development and natural
resources endowment so as to produce a solid economic community that
was able to compete with other regions.
"Another question is what sort of value system will we use? Will we
adopt American or European values? I say we should adopt Asian values
in our cooperation. We can feel these values inside ourselves," Kalla
said.
He characterized Asian values as a system of ethics that prioritized
cooperation over competition.
"It is also about how to say yes and no without causing hard feelings.
They won't be easy to apply, but we should try rather than copying
other systems and values," Kalla said.
He said that intellectuals, businesspeople and government officials
should continue to heighten awareness in society that the ultimate
objective of free trade was increased prosperity, rather than to create
cutthroat competition within the region.
While acknowledging that Asian values were important for imparting a
sense of identity, economist Djisman Simandjuntak of the CSIS said that
people would only benefit from freer trade and freer investment if they
improved their competencies and skills.
When it came to competencies, societies in this part of the world
differed greatly, he added.
Because of this, any regional trade agreement for East Asia needed to
pay a great deal of attention to development cooperation.
"I think that any agreement should focus precisely on narrowing the
gaps between less developed members and more developed ones, and
between people living in poverty and people living in abundance," he
told the audience.
Djisman suggested that the region should start with education and
training in order to disseminate the knowledge and skills that were
needed so that people could benefit from the removal of barriers to the
trade in goods and services.
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