South-East Asian countries will finalize a roadmap to accelerate regional integration as part of efforts to boost trade and attract more investments, officials said Thursday, according to DPA. Economic and trade ministers of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are gathered in Manila for an annual meeting starting on Friday. In preliminary meetings, senior officials have drafted a blueprint for ASEAN economic cooperation that would guide integration of services and manufacturing sectors until 2015. "The blueprint has been drafted and will be one of the documents for consideration by the ministers when they meet later this week," said ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong. Ong said the increased economic cooperation was part of an "ambitious integration process" that "will culminate in the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015." In calling for more investors, Ong said a business that invests in one ASEAN country is also putting his business in the region and the bloc's partners. "Under the integration into the global economy pillar, your market access and production opportunities are not only limited to ASEAN but also to its free trade partners," he said. ASEAN is currently negotiating free-trade agreements with China, South Korea, India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the European Union. ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. According to the ASEAN Investment Area Council, foreign direct investments (FDIs) have continued to flow into the region, growing by 9 per cent in the first quarter of the year. FDIs reached 15 billion dollars in the January-March period this year, compared to 13.7 billion dollars in the same period last year. Manufacturing FDIs have more than doubled in the first half of the year to 30.8 billion dollars, from 12.4 billion dollars in the same six-month period in 2006, the council added.
