Arirang News Interview on the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement

(THIS IS THE NEWS TRANSCRIPTS)

Title : Effects of Korea-ASEAN FTA Go Beyond Trade

Korea recently finalized its bilateral free trade agreement with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Now the head of the Malaysian mission to Korea... Ambassador Ramlan Ibrahim... shared his assessment of the deal with our Kang Che-ry.

With the signing of the investment section this past June, the free trade agreement between Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was finalized.

The trade deal, which the two sides started negotiating back in 2005, is made up of three main parts, namely trade in goods, services and investment.

(English)

[INTERVIEW : Ramlan Ibrahim, Malaysian Ambassador to Korea] ''This FTA will pave for greater economic integration as private sectors of ASEAN as well as Korea and realizes synergies in innovation, research and development, material-sourcing, product development, marketing as well as information technology.''

The ASEAN is the third largest trading partner for Korea... with last year's bilateral trade totalling more than 90 billion US dollars.

And the two sides expect the bilateral trade volume to increase to 150 billion dollars by 2015... thanks to this FTA and other trade arrangements.

And implications of the deal go beyond trade.

(English)

[INTERVIEW : (CG] ''We have taken positive steps in finding constructive engagement of moving our relations forward.''

However, there is some work to be done before talking about the grand idea of shared prosperity.

A recent survey shows merely 13 percent of 400 businesses in the ASEAN region that import Korean products applied for preferential duty rates... for all products.

Many survey participants say they haven't heard of the deal or don't know how to apply for preferential duty.

(English)

[INTERVIEW : Ramlan Ibrahim, Malaysian Ambassador to Korea] ''There is a need to strengthen private sector's participation within the FTA initiative. The role of the private sector is critical to further increase trade and more outreach program would have to be done.''

He, however, added Malaysian companies are trying to reap benefits from the accord with Korea.

The latest figure by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy shows, Malaysia topped the ranking among ASEAN countries... in utility ratio... with more than 20 percent of its import value from Korea treated favorably with preferential duty rates thanks to the deal.

Kang Che-ry, Arirang News.