PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s role as chairman of Asean next year is pivotal in driving regional innovation and digitalisation towards integrating further the disparate economies within the grouping, said Grant Thornton Malaysia Country CEO Kishan Jasani.
He cited how the sheer notion of having a single Quick Response Code across Asean for payments and transactions would be a game changer, leading to greater public convenience and not needing to carry vast amounts of cash when abroad.
Besides this, “I foresee and wish for a future where a company can go for an initial public offering in multiple markets in Southeast Asia with one single submission.”
In looking ahead, he said that “a good thing would be a standard common platform that clearly stipulates the cross-border benefits for investors in trade.”
Towards realising full integration, building trust among member states is a vital ingredient as well as transparency since “Asean has been known to be very opaque in certain legislations” on trade and investment, he told Bernama in an interview recently.
“Transparency of policy is the way to build trust,” he said when outlining Malaysia’s role as Asean chair in 2025, which among others, would entail encouraging initiatives towards greater regional economic unification.
In recent remarks in Australia, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim expressed confidence in Asean’s role as a multiplier in advancing the region’s strategic interests including its journey towards full economic integration.
Kishan also exhorted digitalisation initiatives as they would provide the impetus for growth in Asean, much like in Africa which went straight into mobile phones as they didn’t have landlines to begin with.
“They now have the highest rate of mobile banking penetration globally because they didn’t bother with building landlines. “Let’s digitise and take the best practices.”
Despite being established in 1967 accompanied by numerous economic integration initiatives such as the Asean Economic Community, economic integration including a truly single market much like the European Union (EU) seems to be a difficult journey.
Nevertheless, the grouping holds much economic potential.
Asean, as a trading bloc, is the third largest economy in Asia and the fifth largest in the world, with its gross domestic product (GDP) growth consistently having outpaced the global GDP growth rate by a considerable margin.
Much of this sluggishness towards full integration stems from the differing levels of economic development among member states with countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia at the higher end of the development scale compared with Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia at the other end.
Nevertheless, Kishan lauded the grouping for having moved forward in many other areas as evidenced by the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta), the avoidance of conflict within the grouping and embracing neutrality and being non-aligned despite the difficulties in having to contend with superpower rivalry.
Touching on transparency of policy and areas that need to be improved towards further integration, Kishan lamented that a lot of Asean countries “are not transparent about the policies that could encourage investments, both locally and from abroad.”
He also suggested having a common window that facilitates a single declaration of goods which would be very beneficial especially in facilitating the transshipment of goods, beyond what is being implemented via the Asean Customs Declaration Document.
For instance, a shipper from a global port in China can dock in Singapore and only needs to key in details to declare goods in one window via a common trade platform, which ultimately Malaysia or other countries could also get.
There is no need to apply for two permits even if the goods are thereafter transported overland to and through Malaysia, somewhat like a “regional green lane” for shipment of goods.
Kishan said that another pertinent area that needs to be improved is the acceptance of employee qualifications by member states.
“Although we have such good talent in Asean, member states say no to qualified regional employees but prefer to import someone from outside the region,” he said.
Asean countries should at least recognise the services, for instance, in jobs such as accountants, information technology, financial services personnel and manufacturing – something that member states can leverage on each other for mutual benefit.
However, accountants for instance need to obtain recognition, which is well and good but as Asean citizens there should be some amount of preferential treatment, said Kishan.
He said Asean should work towards emulating the Caribbean Community or the EU whereby Southeast Asian citizens can have common passports with an Asean logo that facilitates and expedites travel within the region.
In working towards a single entity, Asean governments should start encouraging its companies to list on exchanges within Southeast Asia and not necessarily in London – a move which he said will make Asean an attractive capital market destination for everyone.
Source: https://thesun.my/business/malaysia-as-asean-chair-2025-must-drive-regional-economic-integration-FG12360104