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Southeast Asian leaders sign free trade pact
By siliconindia staff writer
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Tuesday, 07 October 2003, 19:30 IST
BALI: Leaders of 10 Southeast Asian nations ranging from fledgling democracies to an absolute monarchy signed a landmark accord on Tuesday aimed at wrestling their disparate region into a European-style economic community by 2020.
The blueprint, dubbed the 'Bali Concord II', envisions a single market eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers within an economic grouping encompassing 500 million people and annual trade totalling $ 720 billion.
"We have just witnessed a watershed in the history of ASEAN," Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations wants to band together to counter the burgeoning economic might of India and China, Asian powerhouses that are siphoning off investment and trade seen as essential for Southeast Asia's development.