Seven Economic Deliverables Fully Completed, Another Five To Be Delivered By 47th ASEAN Summit -- Tengku Zafrul

By Zufazlin Baharuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 (Bernama) -- Seven Priority Economic Deliverables (PEDs) have been fully completed, with another five expected to be delivered by the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, bringing the total to twelve completed PEDs — the latest update on Malaysia’s scorecard.

The 18 Malaysia-led PEDs were aimed at deepening integration, enhancing trade and investment and accelerating digital linkages to wire the regional economy together and reap the full business potential for its almost 680 million populace.

“We are encouraged by this strong progress and remain confident that the remaining six PEDs will be successfully delivered by end-2025,” said Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

He said the PEDs to be delivered by the summits include two major economic agreements, the signing of the 2nd Protocol to Amend the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), and the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol.

“These are key to deepening ASEAN regional economic integration and ASEAN’s engagement with external partners.

“With forward-looking provisions, we expect these agreements to future-proof ASEAN’s trade architecture. They also reaffirm our commitment to an open, inclusive, and rules-based trading system,” he told reporters during today’s 26th ASEAN Economic Community Council (AECC) Press Conference.

On the sectoral front, Tengku Zafrul said the AECC has endorsed several declarations on mineral development, quality tourism, food, agriculture and forestry, and on the establishment of an artificial intelligence (AI) safety network for adoption by ASEAN leaders.

The declarations are the Declaration on the ASEAN Minerals Development Vision, the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Quality Tourism, the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on the Vision for Food, Agriculture and Forestry Towards 2045, and the Declaration on the Establishment of an ASEAN Safety Network (ASEAN AI SAFE).

Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said as ASEAN enters the final phase of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025, the bloc expects to achieve a substantive completion rate of nearly 90 per cent by December 2025.

“We have instructed the sectoral bodies to ensure delivery of all ongoing activities. We have considered the recommendations of the overall end-term reviews of the AEC Blueprint 2025.

“We support and concur with the measures to address the strategic imperatives and improve our institutional mechanisms,” he said.

Moving forward, to ensure the effective and practical implementation of the AEC initiatives and the successor AEC Strategic Plan 2026-2030, Tengku Zafrul said the AECC is working to establish a robust, results-oriented monitoring and evaluation framework and system, strengthen strategic foresight capabilities, and develop a well-functioning coordination mechanism.

“In terms of the implementation of the AEC Strategic Plan 2026-2030, we have further adopted its attendant documents, the Key Outcome Indicators and the Consolidated List of Activities, apart from the List of Quick Wins adopted earlier this year.

“We also welcomed the finalisation/endorsement of several sectoral plans and noted the progress of the remaining ongoing plans,” he said.

The AECC, one of the three ASEAN Community Councils, is the key coordinating body overseeing the ASEAN Economic Community pillar.

The AECC Meeting precedes the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits taking place at the KL Convention Centre from Oct 26 to Oct 28.

-- BERNAMA