The Task Force on Asean Integration of the Regional Development Council, Region 9 (RDC-9) will hold a forum on the Asean economic community (AEC) on May 27, 2014 at the Grand Astoria Hotel in Zamboanga City.
The forum is designed to raise awareness about the AEC and its implications for the economy at the regional and national levels.
Expected to attend this important event are all local chief executives in the region as well as business leaders and industry captains, regional and provincial heads of national government agencies, members of the academe and NGOs, media, and consumer organizations.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the designated chair of the AEC Task Force, has been tasked by the RDC to spearhead the preparations for the activity.
In a press statement, Dr. Sitti Amina Jain, DTI-9 OIC/regional director, said resource speakers from the DTI head office in Manila will explain the rationale and principles of the AEC.
These resource speakers include Assistant Secretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo who will talk on the topic "Advancing Philippine Engagement in AEC; The Philippine Status of Commitments”. He will be joined by the DTI’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion Director Senen Perlada, who will talk about "Asean Integration: An Overview, and the Philippine Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)”.
Other speakers are from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), such as Dr. Erlinda Medalla and Dr. Adoracion Navarro who will discuss the topics "Achieving AEC 2015: Trade Liberalization and Facilitation”; and "Infrastructure and Logistics: Moving Toward AEC 2015”, respectively.
Quoting a passage from the Asean Economic Community Factbook, Dr. Jain said that AEC 2015, in a nutshell, is that aspiration of the Asean ten member-states for regional economic integration by the year 2015.
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.//
