By Rosmalis Anuar<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 (NNN-Bernama) — Canada is exploring ways to take its relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the next level including to a possible free trade agreement, while Australia wants to boost trade with the grouping including in green economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his keynote address at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit 2021 held virtually on Monday, said a free trade agreement would promote growth in the technology, digital commerce, advanced manufacturing, agriculture and agri-food, and professional services sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would be a game-changer for many of our hardworking companies and entrepreneurs, helping them make connections and build business relationships around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would create jobs for the middle class. It would help reduce barriers to trade and provide investors with greater clarity and confidence to expand their presence in other countries\u2019 markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd it would help protect our supply chains from the uncertainties of the global pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trudeau said Canada and ASEAN have been working hard to implement a four-year action plan in support of a joint declaration on ASEAN-Canada Enhanced Partnership, while making sure businesses of all sizes can reap the rewards of a strong Trans-Pacific Partnership, including through the 10-year ASEAN\u2019s Strategic Action Plan for SME Development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in his keynote address said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) were important to bring together the shared economic weight of ASEAN and the region\u2019s other major economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said through the A$46 million Australia\u2019s Regional Trade for Development and Digital Standards Initiatives, the country is working with ASEAN to support implementation of RCEP, including by bringing a larger focus to e-commerce and digital trade across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added Australia is also working bilaterally to forge new agreements and deepen existing arrangements with regional partners such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore, to boost two way trade and open up new frontiers in the green economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a vibrant and dynamic region, and we want to ensure the opportunities and benefits of trade continue to flow unimpeded, and that supply chains remain open and connected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On reducing emissions, Morrison said Australia is making major investments to drive its energy transition, including around A$20 billion to commercialise promising new technologies like clean hydrogen, green steel, long-duration energy storage and carbon capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe expect this will leverage some A$80 billion in total investment by 2030,\u201d he said adding that it will also help neighbouring countries including ASEAN nations to transition to secure and affordable low-emissions technologies that can drive development and jobs within the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of this work, he said Australia also agreed to pool the collective resources and expertise of Quad partners – the United States, Japan and India – to work with other Indo-Pacific partners to build the reliable and resilient supply chains needed to support the region\u2019s energy transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s ASEAN Business and Investment Summit themed \u2018Building Our Sustainable Digital Future\u2019 is hosted by ASEAN\u2019s Chair Brunei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Rosmalis Anuar KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 (NNN-Bernama) — Canada is exploring ways to take its relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the next level including to a possible free trade agreement, while Australia wants to boost trade with the grouping including in green economy. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":86822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,300,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149820"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}