Key government and private sector leaders in the Southeast Asian Region convened at the first Asian Legal Business (ALB) ASEAN Integration Summit 2015 in Singapore last March 26.
According to ALB website, the summit aims “to forge partnerships and devise solutions on the legal, regulatory, and business challenges of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)”.
One of the important sessions in the summit was moderated by the Public-Private Partnership Center Deputy Executive Director Eleazar E. Ricote. The session discussed the importance of physical connectivity as pre-requisite for shared economic growth and the infrastructure development requirements towards an increased intra-regional trade and regional demand.
It also tackled the role of regional infrastructure cooperation in growth and integration and the various projects for improved and integrated roads, railways, airways, ports and energy and telecommunication networks for the ASEAN.
The summit provided a venue to discuss the different challenges and opportunities for this year’s ASEAN Integration. One of topic highlights to accelerate the necessary private investment in the region through overcoming challenges on public-private partnership (PPP).
Last December 2014, the Philippines hosted the first ASEAN PPP Forum in Manila. It was a significant event that allowed ASEAN member states to share PPP experience, discuss proposed PPP guidelines, and explore strategies to attract the private sector to invest in infrastructure in the region. Infrastructure development is seen as a vital component to a stronger ASEAN integration. And public-private partnership is considered to be one of the solutions to the infrastructure gap in the region.
Also, part of the objectives of the ASEAN integration is the freer flow of goods, services, investment, and skilled labor. Thus, ALB gathered public and private sectors to exchange views and opinions on the various transformations required in all aspects of doing business across ASEAN member states.
