Asia Times: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand group to restart stalled projects



	March 4, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand group to restart stalled projects

SONGKHLA, Thailand - Projects under the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) deferred due to the economic crisis should be implemented quickly now that the regional economies are back on track, Malaysian Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin said on Friday.

He called on promoters of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) under the IMT-GT who had been unable to implement several important projects to resolve outstanding problems and implement them as soon as possible.

Daim, who is also Special Functions Minister, said that some of the earlier MoUs signed under the banner of the IMT-GT cooperation were not implemented due to the inability of the promoters to follow through. ''However, now that our economies are back on track, it is time to revive them,'' said Daim at the opening of the eighth IMT-GT ministerial meeting in Songkhla, Southern Thailand.

Also present at the opening was Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi and Indonesia's Communications Minister Agum Gumelar.

Daim said that projects such as the development of common border towns, the road link between the Malaysian state of Perlis and Satun in south Thailand and the construction of industrial estates in Northern Sumatra should be rapidly implemented. ''These infrastructure investments will create greater spin-offs to other sectors of the economies of the participating countries,'' he said.

The IMT-GT Joint Business Council had reported that of the 73 joint-venture projects endorsed under IMT-GT only 24 were implemented, six were under preparation and five had been put on hold. Some 52 percent of the projects were aborted due partly to the recent economic recession which affected Southeast Asia.

Dr Supachai in his welcoming address stressed that enhanced cooperation should speed up the development of the IMT-GT corridor between Songkhla/Haadyai in Thailand and Pulau Pinang in Malaysia, which should also link the Indonesian provinces of Belawan and Medan.

The corridor, he said, would include developing a limited access highway system from Songkhla to Pulau Pinang, simplified border crossings using advanced information technology and industrial support infrastructures. ''To encourage transborder production network in the corridor, multinational corporations must become intensively involved in the IMT-GT's activities, through its private sector mechanisms and discussions with the national and state governments,'' he said.

Turning to the perils of unregulated globalization, Daim cautioned the delegates to the meeting to prepare for the globalization and trade liberalization process which must be of foremost concern to the countries concerned. ''An important lesson that emerges from the economic crisis is that developing countries like us, while supporting globalization and liberalization, will have to open up our economies and financial systems in orderly fashion and at a pace which is comfortable to us,'' he said.

To ensure that the region will not suffer from the after-effect of the process, he said appropriate regulatory frameworks, institutional support and domestic expertise to manage the effects of globalization and liberalization must be developed in tandem.

Dr Supachai said that another challenge of the IMT-GT is the specific potential to increase value-added to local agricultural products. He suggested that rules and regulations on cross-border freightage of agricultural goods be harmonized while the non-tariff barriers should be reduced to ensure the success of the co-production concept among the IMT-GT private sectors.

Indonesia's Agum Gumelar said that it was now time for the private sector to intensify action and tap longer-term opportunities being opened by recent developments in sub-regional cooperation. ''It is my fervent hope that this encouraging development will also stimulate our governments to assess its progress, marshal support for this vital undertaking and find ways of advancing it further with the help of the private sector,'' he added.

(Asia Pulse/Bernama)

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