MANILA, Aug 7: Southeast Asian finance ministers agreed here on Thursday to open up their capital markets further and ease money flows as part of plans toward a single market in the region.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ministers adopted the “road-map for integration of Asean in finance” that would serve as a cornerstone for a regional common market by 2020, according to a joint statement at the end of their annual talks in Manila.

It comprises broad steps to develop, liberalize and integrate the region’s capital markets and financial services to bring about “a free flow of goods, services and investments and a freer flow of capital,” the statement said.

Philippine Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, the meeting’s chairman, told a press conference the plan would be tabled for approval by Asean leaders at their annual summit in Bali in October.

Asean aims to achieve a single market — dubbed the “Asean economic community” — of 530 million people in 17 years. The group comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ministers also said in their statement that they expect economic growth in the region to be higher at 4.3-4.9 per cent in 2003 from 4.4 per cent last year despite possible investor fallout from this week’s deadly Jakarta bombing.

They urged investors not to let this “isolated incident” affect their confidence in the region.

The finance ministers also agreed to simplify customs procedures to hasten regional trade and called for a wide variety of bond issuers in Asia and the strengthening of the bond market infrastructure in the region.

This was part of efforts to better utilize “Asian savings for Asian investments” in the bond markets, Camacho said.

Officials said capital market integration under the plan for financial integration in Asean would be undertaken in two phases, considering different levels of development in the financial fronts of member states.

Camacho said the first phase would be mostly confined to “institutional capacity building,” including beefing up the legal and regulatory framework and market infrastructure for trading and adoption of international standards.

The second phase will involve greater cross-border collaboration among capital markets in the region and harmonization of capital market standards.—AFP