THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced that all is set for the Asean Economic Community (AEC) forum in Zamboanga City on Tuesday.
The DTI spearheads the preparation for the holding of the forum, being the designated chair of the AEC Task Force.
The Task Force on Asean Integration of the Regional Development Council in Zamboanga Peninsula will lead the one-day event.
DTI Regional Information Officer Lowell Vallecer said the resource speakers of the forum are representatives from DTI central office and from the National Economic and Development Authority’s (Neda) Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
Vallecer said they would include DTI Assistant Secretary Ceferino Rodolfo, who will talk on the topic, Advancing Philippine Engagement in AEC: The Philippine Status of Commitments.
Vallecer said DTI’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion Director Senen Perlada will discuss about Asean Integration: An Overview, and the Philippine Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).
The speakers from PIDS are Dr. Erlinda Medalla and Dr. Adoracion Navarro who will discuss about Achieving AEC 2015: Trade Liberalization and Facilitation, and Infrastructure and Logistics: Moving Toward AEC 2015, respectively.
DTI Regional Officer-in-Charge Dr. Sitti Amina Jain earlier said that the underlying objective of the forum is to raise the level of awareness about the AEC and "its implications to our economy both at the regional and national levels.”
Jain said all local chief executives in the region had been invited to attend the forum, which is a very important event.
Also invited are the region’s business leaders and industry captains, regional and provincial heads of National Government agencies, the academe, non-government organization, members of the press, and consumer organizations.
The AEC will have the following key features or characteristics: a single market and production base; a highly competitive economic region; a region of equitable economic development; and a region fully integrated into the global economy.
Asean, which stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is composed of the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Lao People’s Democratic Republic.//
