Member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) decided to accelerate the liberalization of their investment regimes by broadening the scope of economic activities in which ASEAN investors would be given national treatment.
Meeting in Jakarta last week, the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Investment has agreed to phase out the "temporary exclusion list" of products in the manufacturing sectors in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
According to a media release issued on Friday by the ASEAN secretariat, the decision means that any ASEAN investor can now invest in the manufacturing sector of any ASEAN country and enjoy national investor treatment.
Since the launch of the ASEAN Investment Area in 1998, Southeast Asian states have started opening up all industries for investment and granted national treatment to ASEAN investors, but with some exceptions.
