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Jun. 26 – With a GDP of $2.2 trillion, ASEAN is made up of over 620 million people spanning the 10 nations of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The region is host to the largest inflows of United States (U.S.) foreign direct investment (FDI) in Asia, and is the U.S.’s 5th largest trading partner and 4th largest exporter. ASEAN will see substantial growth rates in the coming decade, due to its young population, budding middle class, ongoing infrastructure development, and strategic position on Pacific trade routes.
The U.S.-ASEAN Council, an advocacy organization for U.S. organizations operating in ASEAN, recently released its 2013 policy paper on U.S. priorities in Southeast Asia, titled ‘American Economic Engagement with ASEAN: A Statement of Priorities.’
The US-ASEAN Business Council has called for greater high-level engagement with ASEAN by US businesses following a historic CEO (Chief Executive Officer) business mission to Malaysia, Indonesia and the ASEAN Secretariat today.
The mission was led by the Chair of the Council's Board of Directors who is also ACE Group Chairman and CEO, Evan Greenberg.
"Direct and regular US CEO engagement with ASEAN's public and private sector leaders is vital to the relationship in order to exchange views, seek commonality of objectives and to expand opportunities for two-way trade and investment," Greenberg said in a statement Wednesday.
Joining Greenberg on the mission amongst others were Council Vice Chairman Keith Williams; President/CEO of UL LLC and Council Vice Chairman Greg Brown; Chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions Ryan Lance; Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips Mark Weinberger; and Global Chairman/CEO-elect of Ernst & Young Dennis Nally.
KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Bernama) -- The chairman of the United States-Asean Business Council, Evan G. Greenberg, called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at Parliament House Wednesday.
Greenberg was accompanied by six members of the council. Also present at the meeting was Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.
Najib and Greenberg discussed, among other things, the strengthening and deepening of ties between American multinational companies and Malaysia as well as Asean.
Greenberg also touched on investments which could benefit both the United States and Malaysia.
The United States is Malaysia's fourth largest trading partner after China, Singapore and Japan, accounting for 8.7 per cent of Malaysia's total exports.
There is a quiet intensity about Myanmar's leadership these days — as if they're gripping a precious metal to show enough of it to the onlooker without letting it slip through their fingers. They see a once-in-a-generation chance to bring the country back from the brink of failure, to hitch it to the growth train that has catapulted so many other Asian countries to prosperity in the last few decades.
"We want to retake our position in the region," Than Swe, Myanmar's ambassador to the United States, said in a recent interview with The Washington Diplomat. It is a pithy summation of what unites Myanmar's once heavy-handed leadership.
Asean economic ministers have concluded a roadshow to the United States, organised to raise awareness of the importance of Asean in that country and expose them to investment and partnership opportunities with US business.
The second US-Asean Economic Ministers Roadshow concluded on Thursday with a gala dinner in Washington, DC. It was organised by the US-Asean Business Council in cooperation with the United States Trade Representative, the US Department of State, and the US Department of Commerce.
It's no secret that Asia is a source of tremendous economic growth. For more than 35 years, the United States and The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) member countries have worked to foster economic development through trade and investment, technology transfer, and education.
This week, the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council will hold a series of meetings with U.S. businesses to discuss public-private partnerships, commercial diplomacy, and trade-openness. The U.S. Department of Commerce is specifically committed to economic engagement with ASEAN. ASEAN's rapid economic development, growing middle class, and combined total trade of over $200 billion in goods and services speak to the tremendous enterprise and potential of the region.
You could almost hear the geopolitical tectonic plates shifting as the 200-odd guests clinked their glasses of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc and Meiomi Pinot Noir in honor of Thein Sein, the reformist president of Burma and the toast of Washington this week.
Sein -- the first Burmese leader to visit the U.S. capital in 47 years -- was speaking at a swank U.S. Chamber of Commerce gala dinner put on in cooperation with the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and sponsored by a raft of American companies, including GE, Ford, P&G, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, MasterCard, ExxonMobil, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
U.S. officials Robert Hormats, the undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment, and Derek Mitchell, the U.S. ambassador to Burma, credited Sein with shepherding what Hormats called "remarkable progress over the course of a couple years" in bringing one of the world's most isolated countries into the international system.
Myanmar state television announced Monday that reformist President Thein Sein will make a state visit to the United States in the near future, the first by a Myanmar head of state in almost 47 years and a sign of warming ties.
The visit comes at the invitation of President Barack Obama, said the brief announcement, which gave no exact date.
The last Myanmar leader to visit the White House was the late dictator Ne Win in 1966.
The United States has been a prime mover in urging Thein Sein to introduce reforms after five decades of repressive military rule that ended when he became an elected head of state in 2011.
Last November, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Myanmar, a step in his administration's efforts to end decades of diplomatic isolation of the country also known as Burma and to reward its shift from authoritarian rule.