The regional trade committee will address and discuss various points of regional interest as follow:
ASEAN after the crisis: Most analyst agree that Asia and ASEAN will play a more important role after the crisis. We would like to examine the reasons that lead to the believe that ASEAN will be stronger and intend to prepare a short paper to enable EuroCham members to convince their headquarters to give more attention to ASEAN in the future.
ASEAN integration: ASEAN member countries decided that the integration should be completed by 2015 and our committee would like to prepare a paper on the economic effects of the ASEAN integration. We believe that the economic integration of Europe has been a success and that the economic integration of ASEAN could follow a similar development path.
Promoting Singapore as the Hub of ASEAN: All EuroCham members have regional responsibilities and are therefore interested in regional matters. Politicians and entrepreneurs in Europe tend to look at individual ASEAN countries rather than on ASEAN as a common market. Our aim will be to promote ASEAN as mentioned above and to develop a position for Singapore as the natural hub for the future integrated region.
Free trade agreements: The committee intends to monitor and analyse the development of bilateral free trade agreements and to advise the European commission on regulatory and non tarifferal barriers. Time permitting, the committee could also use this information to assist EuroCham members to ensure a level playing field for all European companies in Singapore and other ASEAN countries.
