Page 14 - EU_ASEN Relations: Perspectives From Malaysia

(AEBF) is a meeting of business leaders in the ASEM region that aims to

promote business partnership in the region. Secondly, the Senior Official’s
Meeting on Trade and Investment (SOMTI) is a meeting of the economic

senior officials in the region aiming to strengthen economic partnership, and
this includes the free trade agreement (FTA). Thirdly, the Financial Ministers’

Meeting (FinMM) is a meeting of finance ministers with the aim to coordinate

the monetary and financial policy in the region.

The economic cooperation in the region is one of the most important agendas

in the ASEM. Since the establishment of the Single European Market in 1992,
some Asian countries expressed their concern that the EU was increasingly

becoming an “economic fortress” with protective barriers against non-member
countries. In order to overcome the shortcomings of the “close regionalism”,

the ASEM could be a crucial multi-faceted “open regionalism” method to

promote economic and business activities between Asia and Europe. For
Europe, Asia can be an important market for their products; whereas for Asia,

Europe can be an alternative source of new investments and advanced
technologies. Despite its importance, economic cooperation does not seem to

produce successful results. For example, the Asia-Europe Vision Group

(AEVG) proposed to establish a comprehensive ASEM free trade area (FTA)
by 2025 (Park, 2004). There have been numerous suggestions and policy

dialogues on a long-term economic objective to establish an ASEM-FTA.
However, no formal discussion about the ASEM-FTA has not taken place

since 2006 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand, 2015). This failure of the
general ASEM-FTA seems to led to numerous discussions to establish bilateral

FTA between the EU and ASEAN member countries. Singapore is the first

ASEAN country to establish a bilateral FTA with the EU under the name of
the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) in 2014 (Sanderson,

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