#MINDANAO

The ASEAN Summit hosted by Indonesia this year shines a light on the 10-member group of Southeast Asian countries that is home to 600 million people living in a $2.3-trillion economy.

There are two main characteristics that set ASEAN apart from other groups.

For one, ASEAN's culturally diverse population is young and keeps growing. This creates many needs and opportunities to provide products and services to meet the needs of a large, young population. With this heightened consumption and production comes its second element, in that the collective economic growth rate spurred by this activity will be better than global growth figures over the coming years.

These two elements make ASEAN countries and the nearby territories a hotspot for sustained growth in a global economic landscape filled with fears of recession amid high inflation. Moreover, the dynamism and demand brought by the ASEAN population have the potential to drive sustained growth in its dialogue partners such as the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Russia, and the European Union. With this, ASEAN is emerging as a strategic economic bloc of growing influence.

When ASEAN was founded in 1967, one of its goals was economic growth and development of its peoples. At that point, the economies of many member states were newly independent, slowly diversifying beyond the historical economic networks built by former colonists.

Over the years trade between ASEAN states increased. Member countries traded with each other to meet their mutual economic needs. In 2003 the desire to craft an ASEAN Economic Community crystallized these aspirations to create a platform for production, economic growth and development.

These efforts to build the economic community enabled free trade agreements that removed many tariff barriers among products. This is called the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement or ATIGA in 2009. The other agreement involved services, called the ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement or ATISA. These two agreements are among the building blocks of this economic community. 

While trade between ASEAN states has increased we need to spur more trade in areas such as the Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) which includes Mindanao and Palawan. Measures to promote connectivity and a lower cost of transportation between Mindanao and the border regions of Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia must be pushed to encourage more frequent direct shipping. 

Being neighboring regions allows lower trade costs and in turn, more inclusive and localized economic activities. This broader economic participation will result in more opportunity for a greater number of citizens.

As private sector participants, business groups within ASEAN and BIMP-EAGA need to network frequently to build contacts and trade relationships within ASEAN. This is how business blooms. When this happens, opportunity rises and the economy grows in a wider, more inclusive manner. Over time, the cost of doing business goes down, encouraging even more trade in  the coming years.

In addition, the broader micro small business sector must be engaged to see the wider market beyond what they can see. E-commerce within ASEAN can be pushed that can encourage small volume shipments of their products. This will inspire the younger entrepreneurs who may have already had the experience traveling within ASEAN to build their businesses across borders.

We must all work for even greater economic inclusion and integration. When this happens, the ASEAN Economic Community is built and strengthened.