Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah emphasised the importance for ASEAN member states to continue the strong collaboration in enhancing intra-ASEAN trade and investment and deepening regional economic integration.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew also encouraged ASEAN to leverage on the good momentum in developing robust and forward-looking policies to ensure that ASEAN remains relevant and adaptive to the complex challenges that the world is facing today.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew said this during the 24th ASEAN Economic Community Council Meeting (24th AECC), in Vientiane, Laos on October 7.
The 24th AECC meeting was chaired by Minister of Industry and Commerce, Laos Malaithong Kommasith, and attended by AECC Ministers from ASEAN member states and Timor-Leste, as observer. At the 24th AECC meeting, ministers discussed and reviewed the progress under ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) pillar.
The ministers also took note of the steady progress of Laos Priority Economic Deliverables (PED) and exchanged views on ASEAN’s economic outlook.
The ministers looked forward to ASEAN’s continued engagement and collaboration, particularly through enhancing trade and investment opportunities and strengthening supply chain network, while upholding the rules-based multilateral trading system.
The meeting also discussed the ASEAN’s Digital Transformation agenda, including the implementation of Bandar Seri Begawan Roadmap for Digital Transformation and the ongoing negotiations of ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA).
The ministers reaffirmed the importance of digital economy to the region’s economic growth and looked forward to DEFA’s potential to deliver benefits for the business sectors in the region. The 24th AECC meeting also endorsed AEC Outcome Documents which are to be submitted to the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and Related Summits, which is currently ongoing from October 8-11 in Vientiane, Laos. The 24th AECC meeting was preceded by the Preparatory Meeting of the Senior Economic Officials (Prep-SEOM) on October 6. The meeting was attended by Permanent Secretary (Economy, Trade and Industry) at the Ministry of Finance and Economy Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah binti Haji Ahmad Ariffin and officers from the Trade Division, Ministry of Finance and Economy.
