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Mekong Institute, Khon Kaen, ThailandSeptember 19, 2016

Regional Seminar on

ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY:Sharing Perspective, Knowledge andExperience

REGIONAL SEMINAR ON

ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC):

SHARING PERSPECTIVE,

KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE

Khon Kaen, Thailand

September 19, 2016

Sponsored by the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF)Implemented by Mekong Institute (MI)

REGIONAL SEMINAR ON:ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC): SHARING PERSPECTIVE, KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE

Khon Kaen, Thailand | September 19, 2016i

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) becomes reality in 2015, it announces thesignificant progress for implementing ASEAN Blueprint 2015 on regional economic integrationin the past decade with enhanced competitiveness, integrated production networks,increased trade and investment and deeper ties among ASEAN people. Meanwhile, theGreater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program, launched in 1992,comprising China and five ASEAN countries – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam andThailand, has also improved both in terms of physical and non-physical connectivity in thesub-region with shared insights and valuable lessons to ASEAN for achieving AEC goals 2015.

With the significant progress for regional cooperation under the ASEAN and GMS frameworks,however, crucial challenges remained, including involvement of private sector, physical andnon-physical barriers to regional trade and investment, and financing development.Therefore, recognizing the regional economic integration as a dynamic on-going process,the ASEAN Blueprint 2025 was launched to continue the journey realizing a deeply integratedand highly cohesive ASEAN economy from 2016 to 2025, while GMS is also carrying on itsstrategic framework 2012-2022. In view of the challenges, both strategic frameworksemphasized the involvement of private sector through policy support and capacity buildingfor small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which are considered as the engine ofeconomic development.

Against this background, the Mekong Institute (MI), with support from the Government ofJapan, designed a two-year project covering a series of capacity development activities topromote business linkages and information network for SMEs, members of provincial andlocal Chambers of Commerce and Industries (CCI) and Business Associations along theSouthern Economic Corridor (SEC) in four bordering Mekong as well as ASEAN countries,namely Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. As part of the program, the regionalseminar was organized to share perspective, knowledge and experience of AEC inconnection with the development context of GMS and Economic Corridors, particularlySouthern Economic Corridor (SEC).

The event was organized on September 19, 2016 at the residential training center of MI inKhon Kaen, Thailand, bringing together speakers and participants from international andregional organizations, respective ministries of commerce and industry, think tanks, banks,and representatives from private sector, in addition to members of the Southern EconomicCorridor (SEC) Project Steering Committee from Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, andVietnam along SEC and the close project stakeholders from Japan and India.

The proceedings summarized the key outputs of the seminar on: 1) significance and impactof AEC and implementation progress in CMTV as envisaged in the AEC Blueprint 2025; 2)updated information on regional and sub-regional trade, cross-border trade, tradefacilitation, SME development, financing development and others relevant issues in theintegration process; 3) shared innovative ideas and information that facilitates thedevelopment of SEC through enhancing competitiveness of SMEs.

ii REGIONAL SEMINAR ON:ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC): SHARING PERSPECTIVE, KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCEKhon Kaen, Thailand | September 19, 2016

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

AAAA Addis Ababa Action AgendaABIS ASEAN Business and Investment SummitACIA ASEAN Comprehensive Investment AgreementADB Asian Development BankAEC ASEAN Economic CommunityAFAS ASEAN Framework Agreement on ServicesAFTA ASEAN Free Trade AreaAPSC Political-Security CommunityASCC ASEAN Socio-Cultural CommunityASEAN Association of Southeast Asian NationsASEAN-BAC ASEAN Business Advisory CouncilASSIST ASEAN Solutions for Investments, Services and TradeATIGA ASEAN Trade in Goods AgreementATR ASEAN Trade RepositoryBA Business AssociationBCIM Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar InitiativeBIMSTEC Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Techno-Economic CooperationCBTFA Cross-Border Transport Facilitation AgreementCCI Chamber of Commerce and IndustryCIC Cambodian Investors’ ClubCLMV Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and VietnamCWEA Cambodian Women Entrepreneurs’ AssociationESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the PacificEWEC East West Economic CorridorFTA Free Trade AgreementGMS Greater Mekong Sub-regionHRD Human Resource DevelopmentIAI Initiatives of ASEAN IntegrationJAIF Japan-ASEAN Integration FundLDC Least Development CountriesMI Mekong InstituteMIEC Myanmar-India Economic CorridorMPAC Master Plan on ASEAN ConnectivityMSME Micro, Small and Medium-sized EnterpriseMNC Multi-national CorporationMRA Mutual Recognition AgreementsNSEC North South Economic CorridorNID New Industry DevelopmentNTFC National Transport Facilitation CommitteeNTM Non-tariff MeasuresNTR National Trade RepositoryODA Official Development AssistancePPP Public Private PartnershipRCEP Regional Comprehensive Economic PartnershipROO Rules of OriginSCP Self-Certification ProgramSDG Sustainable Development GoalsSEC Southern Economic CorridorSED Sustainable Energy DevelopmentSEZ Special Economic ZoneSIDBI Small Industries Development Bank of IndiaSME Small and Medium-sized EnterpriseSPV Special Purpose Vehicle


Khon Kaen, Thailand | September 19, 2016iii

TPP Trans-Pacific PartnershipTTF Transport and Trade FacilitationTTRI Training for Trade and Research InstituteUNCDF United Nations Capital Development FundYEAC Young Entrepreneurs’ Association of Cambodia

iv REGIONAL SEMINAR ON:ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC): SHARING PERSPECTIVE, KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCEKhon Kaen, Thailand | September 19, 2016

TABLE OF CONTENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................iACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................................ iiTABLE OF CONTENT ....................................................................................................................................iv

1. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................... 11.1 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................... 11.2 OBJECTIVES AND ANTICIPATED OUTPUTS .............................................................................. 2

2. OPENING SESSION.............................................................................................................................. 32.1 WELCOME REMARKS ................................................................................................................. 32.2 OPENING REMARKS–Marking Dynamic Mekong Region................................................... 42.3 Keynote Speech ........................................................................................................................ 5

3. SESSION I: ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC) BLUEPRINT 2025 ........................................ 73.1 Session Keynote Presentation- AEC Blueprint....................................................................... 73.2 Panel Discussion I: AEC Blueprint 2025 - Reflections from Cambodia, Myanmar,Thailand, and Vietnam (CMTV)........................................................................................................... 9

Topic I: AEC Blueprint2025 -Implementation Progress and Results in Cambodia ................ 9Topic II: ASEAN Economy through Trade, Investment and Production Network-Myanmar’s Perspective .................................................................................................................. 11Topic III: 20 Years of Participation of Vietnam in ASEAN and the Implementation Progressto Achieve AEC................................................................................................................................ 13Topic IV: Progress of Thailand for Implementing AEC 2015 and Moving Forward to AEC2025..................................................................................................................................................... 15 Comments and suggestions.................................................................................................. 16

4. SESSION II: CROSS-BORDER TRADE AND TRADE FACILITATION IN SEC .................................... 174.1 Session Keynote Presentation–Cross Border Trade and Trade Facilitation................... 174.2 Panel Discussion II: SME Development and Financing: Sharing experiences .............. 19

Topic I: Southern Economic Corridors: Opportunities and Challenges for SMEs under theAEC ..................................................................................................................................................... 20Topic II: Dynamics of ASEAN-India Relations with Special Reference to India’s North East............................................................................................................................................................. 22Topic III: New Approaches to SME and Entrepreneurship Financing in ASEAN ................... 24Topic IV: Supply Chain Finance Mechanism for SMEs Integration into Global Value Chain............................................................................................................................................................. 26 Questions and Answers .......................................................................................................... 28

5. SESSION III: REALIZING IMPORTANCE OF SEC IN THE CONTEXT OF REGIONAL AND GLOBALPRODUCTION NETWORKS ............................................................................................................... 28 Questions and Answers .......................................................................................................... 30

6. CONCLUDING SEESION................................................................................................................... 31

APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................................. 31APPENDIX 1: SEMINAR EVALUATION ................................................................................................. 31APPENDIX 2: PROGRAM SCHEDULE AND AGENDA ........................................................................... 34APPENDIX 3: SPEAKERS AND MODERATORS PROFILES ....................................................................... 36APPENDIX 4: DIRECTORY OF PARTICIPANTS .......................................................................................... 50


Khon Kaen, Thailand | September 19, 20161

1. BACKGROUND ANDOBJECTIVES

1.1 BACKGROUND

As the much-anticipated 2015 ASEANEconomic Community (AEC) becomes areality, the Greater Mekong Sub-region(GMS) prepares itself for the myriad ofopportunities and challengesaccompanying this transformation intosingle market. The centrality of the ASEANCommunity has put it in connectivity withsuch sub-regional framework as the GreaterMekong Sub-region (GMS) in regard to thecontribution of GMS toward the aspirationsof ASEAN.

As such, for the purpose of enhancingeconomic integration and regional linkages,the ASEAN has endorsed the ASEANBlueprint 2015 in 2003 and the Master Planon ASEAN Connectivity in 2010, and movedforward with the strategic plan for theperiod 2016 – 2025. The enhanced ASEANConnectivity has assisted the ASEANcountries in increasing competitiveness,promoting economies of agglomerationand integrated production networks,enhancing trade and investments,accelerating regional integration anddeeper ties among ASEAN people. In thisnexus, the GMS Economic CooperationProgram, which was launched in 1992, hasimproved both physical and non-physicalconnectivity in the sub-region that canshare insights and valuable lessons to ASEANto support the AEC goals.

The importance of ASEAN is stronglyrecognized in the program-wide strategiesof the GMS with the fact that regionalcooperation was a potent means towardcollective action in overcoming constraintsunique to member countries.

The AEC Blueprints have spurred a greatersense of urgency to accelerate economicintegration. And the ASEAN Blueprint 2025has provided broad directions through

strategic measures for the AEC from 2016 to2025. To this end, AEC Blueprint 2025 aims atachieving the vision of an AEC by 2025,which is highly integrated and cohesive,with enhanced connectivity and integratedwith the global economy.

It is envisaged that the continued efforts todevelop the strategic linkage and interfacebetween ASEAN and GMS have beenmade in order to deepen the partnerships,given the larger geographical coverageand synergy emerged in the region andsub-region. ASEAN makes available abroader regional framework in which thesub-regional cooperation programs cancarry out its work as the ASEAN and GMSactivities share the similar purposes andpursue collaborative development as afundamental objective.

Although the regional cooperation underthe ASEAN and GMS frameworks has madea significant progress over the pastdecades, the crucial challenges, includinginvolvement of private sector, physical andnon-physical barriers to regional trade andinvestment, and financing, can be seen.

In view of the challenges facing the privatesector involvement, particularly indevelopment of regional trade andinvestment along the GMS economiccorridors, it is noted that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dominate theeconomies in most countries, andimpediments to the growth of SMEs vary.

The constraints include rising productioncosts, low competitiveness, and inadequatepolicy framework and support. Indeed, SMEslack access to finance, appropriatetechnology, and markets. In addition,inadequate infrastructure has become amajor bottleneck to private sectorinvestments; while public sector investmentin infrastructure development is still ongoing. Also, the development of the GMSeconomic corridors is strongly in need offurther harmonized regulations, procedures,and standards in transport and trade

2 REGIONAL SEMINAR ON:ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC): SHARING PERSPECTIVE, KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCEKhon Kaen, Thailand | September 19, 2016

facilitation towards open market andglobalized perspectives.

In the light of AEC development frameworkand its implementation in the post 2015-milestone period, Mekong Institute (MI) isorganizing a regional seminar cumworkshop titled ‘ASEAN EconomicCommunity (AEC): Sharing Perspective,Knowledge and Experience’ in connectionwith the development context of GMS andEconomic Corridors, particularly SouthernEconomic Corridor (SEC).

The seminar cum workshop is part of thetwo-year Project on “EnhancingCompetitiveness of Small and Medium SizedEnterprises (SMEs) along the SouthernEconomic Corridor (SEC) of the ASEANMekong Sub-region” for ASEAN cooperationfunded under the Japan ASEAN IntegrationFund (JAIF).

The event brought together speakers andparticipants from internationalorganizations, think tanks, private sectorbesides members of the southern economiccorridor (SEC) project steering committeefrom Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, andVietnam. During the course of the two-dayseminar cum workshop, the participantsshared perspective, knowledge, andexperience in global and regionalcooperation and integration, particularly inthe context of AEC, and the changingneeds for the participating countries tomutually achieve AEC goals.

1.2 OBJECTIVES AND ANTICIPATEDOUTPUTS

OBJECTIVES

To discuss about the significance andimpact of AEC and implementationprogress as envisaged in the AECBlueprint 2025;

To update and share information onregional trade, cross-border trade, Tradefacilitation, Small and Medium-sizedEnterprises (SME) development, Valuechains and Industrial clusters / SMEclusters, and others relevant issues in theintegration process;

To increase comprehensive awareness ofAEC among the government officialsand related stakeholders from privatesectors of CMTV, developmentpractitioners, and concernedstakeholders;

To serve as an interactive platform forthe project stakeholders to exchangeinnovative ideas and information thatfacilitates the development of SECthrough enhancing competitiveness ofSMEs.

ANTICIPATED OUTPUTS

The anticipated outputs are:

Identified AEC-based perspectives,action plans, and implementationprograms and feedback of theparticipants;

Identified innovative and programmaticideas and actions, which are feasible tothe JAIF-funded project in SEC;

Enhanced networks of participants whoare from the public, private anddevelopment sectors.



2. OPENING SESSION

2.1WELCOME REMARKS

Dr. Watcharas LeelawathExecutive DirectorMekong Institute (MI)___________________

The regional seminar was inaugurated by Dr.Watcharas Leelawath with warm welcometo all distinguished speakers and delegates.He started with expressing his sincereappreciation to Japan government forsupporting the regional seminar, which ispart of the 2-year project titled “EnhancingCompetitiveness of Small and Medium SizedEnterprises (SMEs) along the SouthernEconomic Corridor (SEC) of the ASEANMekong Sub-region”.

Dr. Leelawath went on saying that thedesign of the 2-year project was based on arapid needs assessment conducted by MIalong the SEC. The study indicated that, onone hand, following the formation of AEC2015, the launch of new ASEAN blueprint2025, and the GMS economic corridordevelopment plan, the SEC is considered asone of the most important economiccorridors containing vast potentials forfurther economic development and regionaleconomic integration. The development ofSEC will not only boost the cross-border tradebetween GMS countries, but will also widenthe markets to ASEAN as well as the globalmarkets. SMEs have been proved as thedriving force for regional economicdevelopment.

However, on the other hand, the studyidentified that due to limited capacity in

utilizing information and managementthereof and incomplete institutional supportsystems, SMEs of the four countries have notbeen able to take full advantages of theopportunities and benefits from various FTAsunder ASEAN and GMS frameworks,

Therefore, the project planned to enhancethe capacity of the SMEs along the SECdeveloping the SME-clusters, businessresearch and trade promotion, so as toparticipate in regional and global valuechains by taking full advantage of variousregional agreements on trade andinvestment facilitation.

In foreseeing the opportunities andchallenges, the seminar offered animportant platform to the stakeholders alongSEC and the region to share the growingeconomic strengths under ASEAN blueprint2025, experience in implementing ASEANblueprint 2015, diagnose the significantinfluencing factors hindering the regionaleconomic integration under ASEAN andGMS, and identify the obstacles,opportunities and strategies for enhancingSME development. Dr. Leelawath stressedthat the forum would help CMVT countriesreach common views on how thegovernments and regional developmentagencies could help businesses benefit fromthese regional economic agreements so asto facilitate cross-border trade and developa closer community-based region.

At last, Dr. Leelawath again thanked allspeakers for sharing their valuableexperience and view to the seminar,thanked all delegates for their proactiveparticipation, comments and suggestions.The last but not the least, a specialappreciation went to the JAIF for supportingthe entire program.


2.2 OPENING REMARKS–MarkingDynamic Mekong Region

Mr. Daisuke HiratsukaPresidentBangkok Research Center (BRC),Bangkok Institute of Developing Economies-Japan External Trade Organization(IDE-JETRO), Thailand___________________

Mr. Daisuke Hiratsuka commenced theintroductory session with three questions toraise the issues on the Mekong regionaldevelopment, i.e. 1) how can the Mekongregion develop together? 2) can local firmsand SMEs benefit from globalization? 3) whyAEC is necessary and what other necessarystrategies are needed to be applied?

Mr. Hiratsuka stressed that transportation costin cross-border trade is considered the keyparameter of inclusive regionaldevelopment that helps narrowing thedevelopment gaps between countries/regions, given the fact that transportationcost determines the geographic movementof manufacturing sectors between countriesand regions while motivated by the cheaperworkforce.

However, in reality, the transportation cost incross border trade is still high either betweenhigh industrialized countries, such as USA andCanada, or low industrialized countries, suchas Thailand and Laos. The high transportationcost and associated border barriers restrictvalue in cross-border trade.

To reduce the transport cost and enhancethe cross border trade, many countries andregions initiated cooperation agreements to

facilitate the cross-border trade aiming atsimplification of border and customsprocedures including documentation,approvals and permits, inspection which inturn reduce travel time and associatedvarious overhead costs.

In a globalized world with production andoperations processes largely fragmentedfirms are often required to be specializing ina particular part of the supply chain/ process.Such specialized fragmentation providesmore business opportunities throughtechnological innovation and economies ofscale and eventual high profitability.

However, only a small amount of handfulfirms (3%) are exporting to benefit from theglobalization and most of them are largescale of local firms but not SMEs. Therefore,SME-clusters development could be oneway out to group SMEs together to enhanceSMEs’ export capacity and barging powerwhile participating in the global value chain.

In addition to SME-clusters development,digital economy and information andcommunication industry are growing rapidlywith opportunities for young entrepreneursoperating SMEs to participate in servicesupply chains.

In this context, along with policy support fortrade facilitation and SME-clustersdevelopment, a new approach may needto be worked out to promote and supportthe start-ups in digital industry by sub-contracting with large private enterprises orthrough public-private partnership (PPP) toparticipate into the global value chains.

At the end, Mr. Hiratsuka encouraged alldelegates to share their thoughts to theseminar and wished the workshop all thesuccess with fruitful ideas leading to furtherdevelopment of the Mekong region.



2.3 Keynote Speech

H.E. Sok SiphanaAdvisor to the Royal Government ofCambodia___________________

H.E. SokSiphana remarked the seminar as animportant and useful platform forstakeholders of the region to discuss howSMEs could become a benefitting factor tothe AEC. He started with acknowledginginvitation by MIto attend the event and agenerous support from JAIF to implementthe project.

He went on sharing the progress of the AECupto date and his views on the way forwardof ASEAN and Mekong Sub-regioncooperation.

AEC Blueprint 2025 and its implementationprogress and results

H.E. Sok Siphana mentioned that 2016 is theinaugural year of the AEC where the tenSoutheast Asian countries are now fullyintegrated into an ASEAN Community. In thiscontext, he illustrated with the annual GDPand growth rate achieved by ASEANthrough important economic initiativeswhich in turn has been recognized as asignificant contribution to the global growth.With a combined GDP standing at USD 2.43trillion as of last year, ASEAN is firming up theregion's position as a global growth centre.ASEAN's real GDP grew at a robust rate of 4.7%in 2015, and it is projected to grow by 4.5% in2016 and 4.8% in 2017 respectively amidstincreasingly challenging global conditions.

ASEAN has also demonstrated an impressiveperformance in trade and investment.

ASEAN’s total merchandise trade remainsresilient, standing at USD 2.28 trillion in 2015,with intra-regional trade accounting for thelargest share at 24% or USD 545 billion.Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows toASEAN stood at USD 120.0 billion last year,with the services sector as the largestcontributor at 62.5%. Intra-ASEAN FDI inflowsalso accounted for the largest share of FDIinflows to the region. Tourism wise, ASEANreceived 108.9 million international visitorslast year, an increase of 7.3% from 2014.

The significant progress on the tariffliberalization and elimination in ASEANcountries has also been made to date. Anoverall 96.01% import duties of all ATIGA tarifflines were eliminated, of which 99.2% for theASEAN-6, including Brunei Darussalam,Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,Singapore and Thailand; and 90.9% for theCLMV, meaning Cambodia, Lao PDR,Myanmar and Viet Nam. By 2018, thepercentages of tariff elimination for ASEAN,ASEAN-6 and CLMV will be at 98.67%, 99.20%and 97.81% respectively.

Though AEC has not been transformed into asingle economic entity by January 1, 2016, itis quite clear that remains a "work-in-progress" for some time. The Lao PDR'ssuccessful chairmanship of the 28th and 29thASEAN Summits in last two weeks has markedanother major milestone in this. All theinitiatives that have been adopted or put inplace will serve as a foundation toeffectively implement the AEC Blueprint 2025.These include the adoption of sectoral workplans under the various AEC SectoralMinisterial Bodies to operationalize thestrategic measures outlined in the Blueprint.He stated that the broad directions for theAEC for the next ten years are in place andthe momentum is on. The action driven visionASEAN Post-2015 is quite clear to lay outsuccinctly the progressive communitybuilding works leading ultimately towardASEAN full integration.

ASEAN and Mekong Sub-region Cooperation


When it comes to the Mekong Sub-region,H.E. Sok Siphana believed that the fiveMekong countries, with their strongeconomic potentials, are recognized as adynamic region and even as one of theworld growth centers.

He stressed that access and exposure to FDI,foreign trade, modern ways of doingbusiness, and sophisticated professionalpractices, among others, are importantcontribution that the AEC will bring to theMekong sub-region. The ASEAN Summit andRelated Summits in Vientiane in 2016 havehad significant impact on the AEC as awhole but more so for SMEs in the Mekongcountries. He highlighted a few initiatives ofASEAN, which he believed can bringimmediate benefits to SMEs in both regions.

1) Information hub and tools

The ASEAN SME Service Centre WebPortal www.aseansme.org, aninformation hub for MSMEs operating inthe region; and the ASEAN SMEAcademy (www.asean-sme-academy.org), a self-help and self-paced online learning tool for SMEscomprising guidelines on a number ofbest practices in doing business;

SMEs that are in the export business,could access the ASEAN Tariff Finderwebsite which is a no-cost web--basedtariff search facility (http://tariff-finder.asean.org/);

The National Trade Repository (NTRs)through which all ASEAN Member Stateswill link their information to the ASEANTrade Repository (ATR)will provide a one-stop online database containing allASEAN trade and customs relatedinformation for the private sector in theregion, once fully operationalized;

SMEs that seek to explore businessopportunities in ASEAN can access thislink (http://assist.asean.org) which is aportal for ASEAN Solutions for Investments,

Services and Trade (ASSIST). This service isaimed at delivering practical solutions tohelp businesses address their concernsand difficulties while doing business in theregion.

2) Private sector advocacy and networking

On the role of the private sector inadvocacy and networking, he pinpointed avery positive trend. On one hand, more andmore ministers and officials have recognizedthe meaningful involvement of the privatesector in achieving optimal outcomes for theAEC. The AEC Blueprint 2025 explicitlyhighlights the greater involvement of theprivate sector in the AEC's work. Variousbusiness forums and summits, or sidelineevents and similar gatherings are rising toprovide the networking platform for theprivate sector, such as the ASEAN BusinessAdvisory Council (ASEAN-BAC), which hasrecently held the 2016 ASEAN Business andInvestment Summit (ABIS 2016). On the otherhand, entrepreneurs from various Mekongcountries are getting themselves organizedto better prepare to participate in thesenetworking events. He has also providedsome success stories in Cambodia, where alot of efforts have been undertaken by theCambodian Chamber of Commerce, andother business associations, like the YoungEntrepreneur Association of Cambodia(YEAC), the Cambodian WomenEntrepreneur Association (CWEA), theCambodian Investor Club (CIC), and theCEO Master Club, to build and enhance thecapacity of their members to tap thesenetworks.

3) ASEAN Connectivity

Moving on, H.E. Sok Siphana mentioned thatMekong sub-region cooperation could alsoshare the same benefit from the ASEANconnectivity in the last decade and onwardsto 2025. In the last decade, the ASEANConnectivity, both physical and non-physical, has assisted the ASEAN countries in



many ways including increasedcompetitiveness, promotion of economies ofagglomeration and integrated productionnetworks, enhanced trade and investments,and the last but not the least, deeper tiesamong ASEAN people. In addition, theadoption of the Master Plan on ASEANConnectivity 2025 (MPAC 2025) by theASEAN leaders at the last ASEAN Summitmarks another significant step towardmaking the regional connectivity vibrant.

4) Cooperation with other developmentpartners

H.E. Sok Siphana emphasized that all theachievements highlighted previously werenot done only by ASEAN member states, butalso with the contribution of ASEAN’s variousDevelopment Partners, such as China,Japan, Korea and others who stimulatedregional growth and advanced the ASEANCommunity agenda.

In addition, once the advanced stage ofnegotiations of the Regional EconomicComprehensive Partnership (RCEP)concluded, it will be a modern,comprehensive, high-quality and mutuallybeneficial economic partnership agreementfor ASEAN to benefit from.

In conclusion, H.E. Sok Siphana stated thatthere was no doubt that the AEC has hadpositive effects on the overall economicgrowth of the Mekong countries and it hascontributed to narrow their developmentgaps and facilitated their smooth integrationinto the ASEAN Community. As a "work inprogress", more work need to be carried on,but he expressed confidence for the growthwith a clear work agenda cut out for nextdecade.

H.E. Siphana ended his remarks with bestwishes to the seminar in carrying out theinteresting discussions.

3. SESSION I: ASEAN ECONOMICCOMMUNITY (AEC)BLUEPRINT 2025

Session one was commenced with akeynote presentation by Dr. WatcharasLeelawath, the Executive Director ofMekong Institute (MI), who introduced thegeneral progress and results of theinterrelated ASEAN agreements whileimplementing AEC blueprint 2015, as well as,challenge and opportunities toward theAEC blueprint 2025. It was followed by paneldiscussion to share perspectives fromCambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailandrespectively.

3.1 Session Keynote Presentation-AEC Blueprint

Dr. Watcharas LeelawathExecutive DirectorMekong Institute (MI)___________________

Dr. Watcharas Leelawath firstly reviewed thefirst pillar of AEC blueprint 2015 - a singlemarket and product base with free flows ofgoods, services, capital, investment andskilled labors by examining the ASEAN TradePerformance trend in last decade in terms ofTrade in Goods in value and percentage ofGDP. He pointed out that the intra-ASEANtrade accounted for 24% of total ASEANtrade, which was much lower than theproportion of intra-EU trade up to 64%. Thisdata implied that firstly, the goal of singlemarket and product base was too high toreach by 2015; secondly, more work need tobe done to reinforce the implementation ofthe related ASEAN agreements so as to


increase the proportion of intra-ASEAN trade.Thirdly, ASEAN’s trade data in 2008 fallingdown for 25% indicated the risk that ASEANcountries relied too much on the orders ofwestern developed countries.

Trend of ASEAN (Trade in Goods)Source: ASEAN Economic Community Chartbook 2014

Trend of ASEAN (Trade in Goods, percentage of GDP)Source: ASEAN Economic Community Chartbook 2014

The blueprint 2025 comes just in the righttime to adjust the goal of AEC 2015 to bemore realistic with five interrelated andmutually reinforcing characteristics, namely:(i) A Highly Integrated and CohesiveEconomy; (ii) A Competitive, Innovative, andDynamic ASEAN; (iii) Enhanced Connectivityand Sectoral Cooperation; (iv) A Resilient,Inclusive, People-Oriented, and People-Centred ASEAN; and (v) A Global ASEAN.The blueprint 2025 has incorporated thecommitments of CLMV (Cambodia, Laos,Myanmar and Vietnam) set up for 2015 andwill also put more effort to help SMEs to wellparticipate in global value chain.

Dr. Leelawath touched upon theimplementation progress of the ASEAN Tradein Goods Agreement (ATIGA), ASEANFramework Agreement on Services (AFAS),ASEAN Comprehensive InvestmentAgreement (ACIA) and Mutual RecognitionAgreements (MRAs) respectively under thefirst pillar of AEC blueprint 2015 andhighlighted the key measures to be furtherimproved in blueprint 2025.

Dr. Leelawath introduced that most of themeasures under the pillar one - a singlemarket and product base- will be continuallyimplemented in the blueprint 2025 under thefirst strategy- a Highly Integrated andCohesive Economy.

He emphasized that with theimplementation of ATIGA, while tariffrates of most goods have been reducedto zero, the utilization rate of preferentialtariff remained quite low by enterprisesdue to costly compliance of Rules ofOrigin (ROO) and low capacity toaccess information. The work need to becarried on in blueprint 2025 to simplify theImplementation of the ROO and self-certificate scheme, minimize tradeprotection and compliance costs indealing with Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs),and disseminate tariff preferentialInformation widely via various forms suchas training activities, printed materialsand websites.

When it comes to AFAS, Dr. Leelawathtook the telecommunication sector asan example that the roaming cost whiletraveling in intra-ASEAN has beenreduced by 20% in the past five years butit is still very expensive. He then pointedto the fact that more investment,especially foreign direct investment (FDI)should be attracted to the servicessectors. Liberalized services andreasonable competitiveness willeventually lead to the reduction ofservices costs in ASEAN.



In order to liberate and facilitate trade inservices, MRAs was established tofacilitate mobility of eight types ofprofessionals/ skilled labor in ASEAN andwork towards the adoption of bestpractices on standards and certifications.However, the implementation of MRAs isconstrained by domestic regulationswhich slowed down the progress ofliberalization of people movement. Theregulatory barriers include complexrequirements and procedures foremployment visas and passes, languageproficiency requirements and licensingregulations of professional bodies. The2025 blueprint will be furtherimprovements to existing MRAs and willconsider the feasibility of additional newMRAs, to reinforce the implementation ofMRAs so as to facilitate the mobility ofprofessionals and skilled labour in theregion.

As for ACIA, he briefly introduced thatthe four principle measures of ACIA –liberalization, protection, promotion andfacilitation will be carried on in blueprint2025.

Regarding the third pillar –equitableeconomic development addressed inblueprint 2015, Dr. Leelawath emphasizedthe important role of SMEs as the engine ofgrowth that contributes to attractingemployees in ASEAN. Therefore, more focuswill be given to SMEs and also the lessdeveloped CLMV countries in blueprint 2025under the fourth strategy - a Resilient,Inclusive, People-Oriented and People-centred ASEAN to narrow the developmentgaps and enhance SMEs’ ability to enablebenefits from the regional integration.

The last but not the least, ASEAN willcontinue to make steady progress onintegrating the region in to the globaleconomy through FTAs and regionalcomprehensive economic partnershipagreements (RCEPs) with China, Japan,

Republic of Korea, India, Australia and NewZealand.

3.2 Panel Discussion I: AEC Blueprint2025 - Reflections fromCambodia, Myanmar, Thailand,and Vietnam (CMTV)

Moderator: Dr. Watcharas Leelawath, Executive

Director, MI

Panel speakers:

Mr. Suon Vichea, Director, Trade Trainingand Research Institute, Ministry ofCommerce, Cambodia;

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong NGA, Ministry ofIndustry and Trade, Vietnam;

Mr. Vitat Vajropala, Director, Bureau ofTrade Capacity Enhancement,Department of Trade Negotiations,Ministry of Commerce, Thailand;

Mr. Aung Kyi Soe, Joint SecretaryGeneral, Union of Myanmar Federationof Chambers of Commerce and Industry(UMFCCI),Myanmar;

Topic I: AEC Blueprint2025 -Implementation Progress and Results inCambodia

Mr. Suon VicheaDirectorTrade Training and Research InstituteMinistry of CommerceCambodia___________________

Mr. Suon Vichea introduced to the audience,the Training for Trade and Research Institute(TTRI), a full-fledged department of Ministry


of Commerce of Cambodia established inearly 2014 with the aim to enhance thecapacity of government officials ofCambodia through trainings so as to betterimplement the multilateral and regionalagreements. Another role of TTRI is to providetrade related research services to MoC,related to the public and privatestakeholders as well as to developmentpartners.

Mr. Vichea mentioned that with thegovernment’s strong commitment at policylevel, Cambodia has done well toimplement the AEC blueprint 2015. Somesignificant progresses have been made forthe free flows of goods, services, capital,investment and skilled labors under the pillarone.

In terms of Trade in Goods, ATIGA hasbeen implemented in Cambodia toreduce tariff rate to zero and eliminatenon-tariff barriers for the most of thegoods. Trade facilitation has been muchimproved in Cambodia in terms ofcustoms automation and single window,and procedure cost for import andexport. Significant improvements havealso been made in National and ASEANTrade Repositories, automation forCertificate of Origin (CO) and businessregistration, SPS database etc. With theentire endeavor, Cambodia achievedabout USD 4 billion trade value withASEAN and about USD 6 billion withASEAN+6 in 2013 with around 7% annualgrowth rate. However, many challengesstill remained in non-tariff barriers fromother member countries, high logisticscost in domestic, and long-timeprocedure required to Cambodianexporters. All this lead to unbalancedexport and import for Cambodia, e.g.out of Cambodia’s total trade value withASEAN and ASEAN+6, export valueaccounted only for 30% and 35%respectively. Therefore, more work needto be done for AEC blueprint 2025.

Regarding the Trade in Services,Cambodia opened almost all sectors.While implementing the AFAS,Cambodia has reduced the limitation onmarket access and national treatment,maximized the potential contribution ofthe services sector to economicdevelopment and growth. The obviousachievements can be seen intelecommunication sector, where theinternational call and internet cost hasbeen dramatically decreasing. In thetourism sector numbers of tourists are alsoincreasing. In financial sector,international payments and transactionsperform well in Cambodia. Otherimprovements can also be found ineducation and health care sectors.Cambodia’s export value in services hasreached to USD 3 million in 2015.

Under the ACIA, Cambodia has createdfavorable Investment environment toattract, maintain and protect bothforeign and domestic investors. TheCambodian Law on Investment (LoI)provides incentives significantly on theimport duty and tax on profit, up to amaximum of 9 years. The majority ofinvestments are in the infrastructure andindustrial sectors which together accountto 76% of total investments in the last fiveyears. The amount of investments inCambodia increased by 18% year-on-year to USD 4.6 billion in 2015, when thelocal investments amounted for 69% oftotal investments. Among foreigninvestors, Chinese investors accountedfor the majority of investments madewhile together with other Asian investorsthey accounted for almost 90% of totalforeign investments made. In thefollowing decade, Cambodiagovernment encourages moreinvestments into agriculture and lightmanufacturing sectors and moreinvestors from other ASEAN countries.



When it comes to capital market andfinancial sector, Cambodia governmenthas made significant adjustments tosupport market-driven financial sector inthe past decade. Banking sector andmicrofinance in Cambodia is boomingwith about 36 commercial banks, 11specialized banks and 34 microfinanceinstitutions as of 2014. Nevertheless, alongwith the past achievements, risksremained with the exchange ratescaused by dual currency system,especially for micro-finance institutionswho replied very much on foreign fundsand loan in dollar. In this regards,Cambodia government is now workingon cleaning bad loans, andencouraging more use of sole currencyin Riel to control the stabilization offinancial market. Cambodia willcontinually implement AEC financialsector-related strategic measures with allother ASEAN countries to stabilize theinterrelated financial market inCambodia and ASEAN in the nextdecade.

In addition, Mr. Vichea shared the progressof SME development and capacity buildings.Cambodia has been implementing variouspolicies under SME Development Frameworkto create conducive environment for SMEdevelopment and assist SMEs to integrateinto global networks. To realize the AECblueprint 2025 - A Competitive, Innovative,and Dynamic ASEAN, Cambodia is in theprocess of adopting a new competition law,promoting development of SME-clusters,special economic zone (SEZ), humanresource capacity building, and researchand development for technology transferand application to reinforce thecompetitiveness of SMEs to seize the benefitsof AEC.

At the end, Mr. Vichea calls for all ASEANcountries to put effort together to furthereliminate the non-tariff barriers, share thetechnologies, enhance capacity of humanresources, stablize the financial market so as

to pave the way for SME development aswell as for a highly competitive, integratedand inclusive AEC.

Topic II: ASEAN Economy through Trade,Investment and Production Network-Myanmar’s Perspective

Mr. Aung Kyi SoeJoint Secretary GeneralUnion of Myanmar Federation of Chambersof Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI),Myanmar___________________

Mr. Aung Kyi Soe laid out his presentationinto two points on overall Myanmar tradeand investment information and Myanmar’sperspective towards AEC 2025.

Overall Myanmar Trade and Investment

Starting with a overview of trade andinvestment data of Myanmar in the past twodecades, Mr. Aung Ki Soe stated that as ofAugust 2016, the total FDI reached aroundUSD 9,481 million. In terms of yearly approvedamount of foreign investment, the top fiveindustrial sectors are oil and gas, transportand communication, manufacturing, realestate and power in 2015-2016 (source:Directorate of Investment and CompanyAdministration, Myanmar, August 2016).Examining the data by country, Singapore(USD 4,246 million), China (USD 3,323 million),the Netherlands (USD 438 million), Malaysia(USD 257 million), and Thailand (USD 236million) invested the most in Myanmar.

In the period of 2015-2016, Myanmar hasrealized USD 27,714.826 million for total trade


in value, increased by 52.5% in last five years.Among total trade value, 40% were fromexport of which border export accounted for40%.

Comparing the trade between Myanmarwith EU and other ASEAN countries, the datafrom MoC showed that Myanmar-ASEANtrade (USD 10,432.53 million) is 15 times ofMyanmar-EU trade (USD 676.341 million) in2016. Nevertheless, the Myanmar-EU tradegrew rather fast in past five years with over63% of increase since 2011, while Myanmar-ASEAN trade increased by 20%. Besides, itcan see another trend that Myanmar-EUtrades are becoming more balancedcomparing export and import value whileexport proportion of Myanmar-ASEAN tradehas decreased from 53% to 38% in five years.

With regards to the trade by products, thetop five exporting products were mainly inthe category of Industry, agri-products,mining, aquatic products, forestry andanimal products. As for the importingproducts, investment materials increasedsharply by 122% from 2011 to 2016. Rawmaterials and consumer goods tradesincreased from 2011 to 2014 but decreasedfrom 2015 to 2016.

Mr. Soe further identified the position ofMyanmar in the trade and investment ofASEAN. Myanmar mostly contributed toASEAN’s total export in terms of agriculturalproducts and fuels and minerals. In terms ofFDI inflow, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailandand Malaysia shared the largest part ofrecipient, while Myanmar and Laos were thesmallest recipient.

Things to consider for AEC from MyanmarperspectiveIn order to maximize the benefit from AEC,he suggested each ASEAN country shouldidentify its comparative advantage. ForMyanmar, its comparative advantagewould be the large local market, abundantnatural resources, and young labor force. Heconveyed great confidence to the newMyanmar government and looked forwardto the reforms to be taken place in order toimprove regulatory environment of doingbusiness and attract more FDI in Myanmar.Moreover, he also called for all ASEANcountries to join hands to reach the goal ofASEC which will finally lead the integratedregion to the global economy. He requestedthat ASEAN countries with high-incomeshould provide assistance to the low-incomecountries in every aspect.

At the end of the presentation, Mr. Soeexpressed his appreciation to MI forimplementing the South Economic Corridor(SEC) project to develop and promote SMEclusters at the provincial level. He believedthat both of the SEC project and the Daweiinvestment project will create moreopportunities for local business of Myanmarwhich will lead to more job opportunities for



Myanmar young labors and greater returnsto investments.

Topic III: 20 Years of Participation ofVietnam in ASEAN and theImplementation Progress to AchieveAEC

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong NgaMinistry of Industry and TradeVietnam__________________

In her presentation, Ms. Nguyen Thi PhuongNga reviewed the Vietnam’s achievementsin trade and investment after 20 years ofparticipation in ASEAN.She sharedimplementation progress and results ofVietnam under AEC blueprint 2015, exploredopportunities and challenges for VietnameseSMEs towards AEC 2025, and the initiativemeasures to support SME development.

Vietnam’s achievements after 20 years ofparticipation in ASEAN

Ms. Nga illustrated that the total trade valueof Vietnam has increased by 14.5% over past20 years from 1995 to 2015.

For FDI inflow, Ms. Nga introduced thenumber of projects and capital which hasinvested by eight countries from ASEAN plusKorea and Japan as of December 2015.

Korea, Japan and Singapore were ranked asthe top three investing countries in Vietnamwith a total of over 9,000 valid investmentprojects.

Implementation progress and results ofVietnam under AEC blueprint 2015

In this sub-topic, Ms. Nga highlighted theprogress and results which Vietnam hasmade in meeting some measures under thefour pillars of AEC blueprint 2015.

1) Pillar one –single market and productionbase

Trade in goods: i) Following the ATIGAinto force in 2010, significant progresshas been made on tariff elimination.ASEAN has totally shared 95.99% oftariff lines on average at the ATIGArate of 0%. In details, ASEAN-6 stoodat 99.20% of share while 90.86% forCLMV of which Vietnam shared 95.5%in 2015 right after Singapore and willreach 98.27% of share by 2018; ii) thenon-tariff barriers have been furtherremoved with enhancedtransparency, improved regionalrules, regulations and standards,especially for MSMEs; iii) Vietnam hasalso streamlined and simplified theadministrative regulatory regimes,document requirement andimport/export procedure by settingup online information hub andpaperless system; iv) customsprocedures has been furtherintegrated and simplified, e.g.Vietnam joined in the rank of Brunei,


Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines andSingapore in implementing the entireor some parts of National SingleWindow (NSW) regime, as well assome pilot projects of self-certification programs for Rules ofOrigin.

Trade in Services. With strongcommitment to implement the AFAS,Vietnam has reduced the restrictionson market access and nationaltreatment to four prioritized servicesectors, namely, tourism, E-ASEAN,healthcare and logistic service.Meanwhile, Vietnam has alsobroadened the coverage to othersensitive services sectors includingfinance and banking,telecommunication and distributionby fulfilling the WTO requirements.

Investment environment. Followingthe ACIA, Vietnam broadens thescope of investors and has alreadyimproved the regulations to treatinvestors equally no matter what theirnationalities are. A dispute settlementmechanism has also established inVietnam to facilitate the sustainableenvironment of investments.

2) Pillar two –competitive economic region

The framework for Pillar two aims toenhance the regulatory environment ofintellectual property, competition andconsumer protection, and connectivity interms of infrastructure development andenergy co-operation. Ms. Ngaemphasized Vietnam’s engagement inthe last area for connectivity. Vietnamparticipated in infrastructure projectsinitiated under ASEAN and GMS topromote multimodal transport network inthis region. In terms of energy co-operation, Vietnam joined ASEANelectricity network to promote cleancoal technology and recycle energy so

as to ensure energy security andeffective usage of energy andsustainable energy development.

3) Pillar three– equitable economicdevelopment

The pillar three comprises two elements -the Initiatives for ASEAN Integration (IAI)for CLMV and SME Development with theaim to narrow the development gapbetween ASEAN 6 and CLMV throughvarious capacity building projects.Vietnam has benefitted from thoseprojects with enhanced capacity forbetter implementing the measures ofAEC. The vital improvement has alsobeen made to better facilitate SMEs toeasily access market, information,finance, technology, and skilled humanresources. Moreover, participation inregional production and distributionnetwork so as to seize the opportunitiesof AEC.

4) Pillar four – Integration into GlobalEconomy

Pillar four emphasized ASEAN‘s externaleconomic relations and participation inglobal supply networks. As one of theASEAN Member States (AMS), Vietnamhas also addressed its policy to benefitfrom the FTA ASEAN +1 and RCEP. Inaddition, Vietnam has also expanded itsrelations with the USA, EU, Canada andRussia. International best practices andstandards were adopted in Vietnam inproduction and distribution toproactively participate in global supplynetworks.

Opportunities and challenges forVietnamese SMEs toward AEC Blueprint 2025

Towards the new AEC blueprint 2025, Ms.Nga has foreseen the opportunities in thefollowing decade.



Market will be expanded to widerindustries as well as geographic regionswith further elimination of tariff rates andnon-tariff barriers;

SMEs’ competitiveness will be enhancedwith regional integration which will leadto broader market with easier access tolower prices of goods and services;

Comparative advantages will behighlighted for each AMS reflectingdifferent foreign investment interests,which will also increase productivity oflabor.

Financial and capital market will also befurther liberalized and more stabilized.

Along with opportunities, Vietnam has alsoprepared for the challenges fromcompetitive pressure in terms of cheap laborforce; low capacity of Vietnameseenterprises will be benefitted from FDI and soon.

Initiative measures to support SME

In the last part of presentation, Ms. Ngaemphasized the initiatives which Vietnamhas been pursuing to support SMEdevelopment. In addition to reviewing andimproving the regulation system to increasetransparency and enabling investmentenvironment, Vietnam has also startedfocusing on long-term capacity building forVietnamese businesses and labor toenhance awareness of AEC and learn howto access key information to be betterprepared and thus to participate in AEC.

Topic IV: Progress of Thailand forImplementing AEC 2015 and MovingForward to AEC 2025

Mr. Vitat VajropalaDirectorBureau of Trade Capacity Enhancement,Department of Trade NegotiationsMinistry of CommerceThailand___________________

Mr. Vitat Vajropala began his presentationby comparing the characteristics betweenAEC blueprint 2015 and 2025. He reviewedthe objectives, opportunities and challengesof each characteristic under AEC blueprint2025.

Firstly, he quested that what AMS should doto realize the ASEAN integration as oneproduction base. Thailand along with othersix ASEAN countries has realized 100% of tariffline elimination for inclusive list, however,some agri-products are still in the highsensitive list, e.g. rice, corn and cassava inThailand. Thailand and the most of AMS hasset up various NTMs to protect its domesticagriculture sector from competitiveness. Forinstance, Thai government is mostly reluctantto release licenses for enterprise importingrice, meanwhile, provide subsidies to ricefarmers to enhance the rice export.

Secondly, however, Mr. Vajropala warnedthat the protection would not last for longdue to the government’s commitment toimplement AEC 2025. But he also believedthat threats coming from opening themarket are also a good chance to force ricefarmers, traders and the government tomake changes in order to survive from the


high competition. On one side, farmers andtraders will need to explore innovative waysand new technology to change the low riceproductivity situation and maintain the highexport volume while increase revenue. Onthe other hand, government will need toadjust related regulations to facilitate ricetrade with fair competition, such asreduction of double taxation, strengtheningof governance through greatertransparency in the public sector andengagement with the private sector,adopting appropriate methods to monitorbusiness transactions and exchangeinformation in accordance with theinternational standards. All these efforts willlead rice sector to healthy and smoothtransformation towards AEC 2025.

Regarding the goal of connectivity andsectoral cooperation, he introduced thatThailand has been participating in variousinfrastructure projects initiated under ASEANand GMS transport network and regionalinformation and communication network.With all the improvement, he thenencouraged enterprises to take advantageof e-commerce to build wider businessnetwork, enhance its competitiveness withfaster transactions and low labor cost, andparticipate in different sectors and market inASEAN region and beyond.

He ended the presentation with the briefintroduction of progress of Thailand to thegoal of “Global ASEAN” that Thailand isimplementing the negotiation of RECP andapplying TPP to further participate in globalmarket.___________________

Comments and suggestions

To realize the full integration of AEC, itrequires more sincerity from ASEANmember states (AMS)to deepen andsmooth the regional cooperationmechanism and process, and moredetermination to implement theircommitments to achieve the strategicgoals of AEC blueprint at national level.The principle for implementing AECBlueprint 2025 should be “bear andshare” - each AMS should bear theirresponsibilities so that all ASEANmembers could share the commonbenefit as a whole. More specifically,each AMS should bear moreresponsibilities on speeding up tradefacilitation while share more benefits byapplying advanced ICT.

The key success factors in fullintegration of AEC also includeengaging appropriate stakeholders intodifferent level of initiatives verticallyeither at international, regional, sub-regional, national and local levels, orhorizontally include inter-governmentalorganizations, governmental agencies,private sectors, universities and thinktanks. Mekong Institute has beenplaying a unique and important role tolink the local and national levelstakeholders with regional andinternational level of stakeholders to putforce together to create and improvethe enabling environment for betterregional and sub-regional economicintegration.

In order to enhance AEC integration,more efforts should also be given to theother two fundamental blueprints ofASEAN- ASEAN Political-SecurityCommunity (APSC) and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). AEC couldonly be realized with a peaceful andstable political and social environmentand closer ties among peoples createdby the latter two blueprints. One way isto establish an ASEAN identifiablethrough education by reducing hatefulmemories and emotions in the historybut addressing more social, culturaland economic ties of ASEAN peoplesand countries.



4. SESSION II: CROSS-BORDERTRADE AND TRADEFACILITATION IN SEC

The session two invited representatives andexperts from international and regionaldevelopment organizations, such as ADB, MI,UNCDF, SIDBI to update and shareinformation and experience on regionaltrade, cross-border trade, trade andtransport facilitation, SME development,value chains and industrial clusters / SMEclusters, and financing development forSMEs and other issues in the integrationprocess. This session give participants achance to exchange innovative andpractical ideas, models and experiencesthat SEC project could learn from to betterfacilitate the development throughenhancing competitiveness of SMEs.

4.1 Session Keynote Presentation–Cross Border Trade and TradeFacilitation

Ms. Kanya S. SasradipoeraSenior Trade SpecialistSoutheast Asia DepartmentAsian Development Bank (ADB)-ThailandResident Mission___________________

In the keynote presentation, Ms. Kanya S.Sasradipoera introduced the general trendsand patterns of GMS trade in the past 20years, and then specifically reviewed thetrade and trade facilitation along theSouthern Economic Corridors (SEC) as well as

GMS’s contribution to AEC in trade andfacilitation.

GMS Trade: Trends and Pattern

The trade data demonstrates that the Intra-GMS trade value has increased dramaticallyfrom USD 5 billion in 1992, when the GMSeconomic cooperation was initiated, to USD413 billion in 2014. The data also indicatedthat the proportion of intra-GMS remainedlow with only 8% comparing with extra-GMStrade. It implied that GMS is getting moreopen for trade and becoming the heart ofeconomic development with high growthrate. The vital achievements reflected theimpact of GMS economic cooperation inpolicy improvement in six countries.

And then Ms. Sasradipoera analyzed thetrade structure by products in the past twodecades. She compared the top fiveproducts exported and imported in theperiod of 1995-2004 and 2005-2015. Thegraphs indicated that machinery andmechanical appliances and electricalequipment stood at the top of five exportedand imported commodities in GMS. Inparticular, its export share has increased for10% over the past 20 years. Same 10% ofincrease can also be seen in the share ofimported mineral products. Among the topfive products, except of fifth position, otherfour showed similar trade structure over past20 years. In export list, transport associatedproducts defeated footwear-kind as the fifthranking in last decade, while optical andphotographic equipment replaced textilesand garment into the import list. Thechanges demonstrated a good sign thatGMS has been moving from manufacturebase to high technology hub.


Trade and Transport Facilitation along theSouthern Economic Corridors (SEC)

Prior to the second part of presentation, Ms.Sasradipoera mentioned that unlike thenational level of trade date, which is easilyaccessed through various online sources, thedata for cross-border trade at border and itsprovincial level is very limited, sometimes isoutdated or less relevant. This is mainlybecause the informal trade was not possibleto record even though it has been thesignificant part of cross border trade.

Nevertheless, with the Cross-Border TransportFacilitation Agreement (CBTFA) fully ratifiedlast year, the national transport facilitationcommittees (NTFC) have now submittedsome border trade data. Ms.Sasradipoerahas then looked into the limiteddata of two key borders areas at Mocbai-Bavet (Vietnam -Cambodia) and Poipet-Arranyaprathet (Cambodia-Thailand),anddrawn the rough trade patternalong SEC.At border of Mocbai- Bavet, the totalnumber of vehicles in and out of Vietnam

has rapidly increased by 57%, 73% and 212%in terms of vehicles for goods, passengersand private use respectively in five yearsfrom 2010 to 2014. Accordingly, the importvalue to Vietnam increased by 17%, whileexport from Vietnam increased by 234% infour years from 2011 to 2014. The graphshowed the trends that transport is ratherbalanced but Vietnam exports more in valueto Cambodia in recent years. The bordertrade shared 17.19% of total bilateral tradebetween Vietnam and Cambodia in 2014.

As for the border of Poipet- Arranyaprathet,the transport increased by about 40% from2013 to 2014, correspondingly, trade valueraised by 26%. The border trade accountedfor 13.78% of total trade between Cambodiaand Thailand. Through the graph, it can benoticed that a great deal of vehicles andimport value flew into Cambodia but veryless out (the import value of Cambodia was18 times higher than export value in 2014). Insummary, Cambodia showed trade deficitat both borders with Thailand and Vietnam.

Regarding the trade facilitation along SEC,Ms. Sasradipoera mentioned that in theory,all four SEC countries – CLMT - are part oftrade facilitation and transportarrangements under ASEAN and GMS, butunfortunately none of them has not yetimplemented. But still, in reality, overallreform on trade related issues are continuing,such as Customs reform and modernization,SPS, trade policy etc, to strengthen themonitoring and evaluation of transport andtrade facilitation. The concrete progress hasbeen made at the two borders by CVTcountries along SEC as below: Poipet–Arranyaprathet: exchanged

Traffic Rights between Cambodia andThailand with 40 permits and soon it willbe expanded to 150 permits.

Mocbai – Bavet: 300 permits under thebilateral transport agreement signedbetween Vietnam and Cambodia;



Established National Single Window,paperless customs automation systemand faster border clearance at customs.

GMS’s Contribution to AEC throughTransport and Trade Facilitation (TTF)

Five countries of GMS are also members ofASEAN. The total trade of 5 GMS shared 32%of ASEAN trade, and the last member ofGMS - China -is also the trade partner ofASEAN.

Comparing to ASEAN, GMS is a smaller sub-regional group but with closer relationsbetween members states. Therefore, thediscussion among them can be more seriousand focused, and they also can be moreintended to implement projects. In thisregards, GMS can contribute to AEC as i)delivery vehicles for hardware, e.g.infrastructure, (ii) test-beds for software, e.g.implementing the trade agreements, and (iii)promotion of inclusive growth via its sub-regional corridor approach which will allowall stakeholders including rural areasparticipating in the regional development.

In addition, Ms. Sasradipoera suggested thatGMS can facilitate enhancing theawareness and implementation of ASEANagreements, customize ASEAN initiatives tothe needs of the subregional groupings(ASEAN plus), align GMS TTF initiatives withASEAN TTF initiatives, contribute toconsolidating TTF monitoring at the ASEANlevel, maintain ongoing dialogues acrosssubregions and with ASEAN on substantiveTTF issues

In conclusion, Ms. Sasradipoera emphasizesthe position and important role of GMS in theTTF pyramid, where the sub-region could notonly deepen into national and bilateral levelbut also up to regional and multilateral levelfor TTF implementation.

More specifically, the GMS initiated CBTAand inked the landmark TTF agreements in1990s, contributing to expansion of trafficrights and routes through bilateral/trilateraltransport agreements, providing support toCLMVT in negotiating transport facilitationagreements. The GMS TTF Action Plan isincreasingly aligning with ASEAN TTFinitiatives by reviewing the CBTA to reduce“noodle bowl” of bilateral agreements,supporting acceleration of CLMV integrationinto ASEAN Customs Transit System (ACTS),conducting capacity building to strengthenTrade Facilitation related agencies,enhancing coordination amongdevelopment partners committed to TTF inthe GMS, while supporting CLMV to reap fullbenefits from AEC.

4.2 Panel Discussion II: SMEDevelopment and Financing:Sharing experiences

Moderator:

Mr. Madhurjya Kumar Dutta, Director, Tradeand Investment Facilitation, Mekong Institute

Panel Speakers:

Dr. Jean Pierre A. Verbiest, Policy Advisor,Mekong Institute

Mr. BhaskarJyoti Mahanta, JointSecretary, Ministry of Heavy Industry andPublic Enterprises, Government of India


Mr. Paul Martin, Regional TechnicalAdvisor – Asia / Pacific, United NationsCapital Development Fund (UNCDF)

Mr. Govindasamy Sampath Kumar,General Manager and Regional Head,Small Industries Development Bank ofIndia(SIDBI), India

Topic I: Southern Economic Corridors:Opportunities and Challenges for SMEsunder the AEC

Dr. Jean Pierre A. VerbiestHonorable Advisor to Mekong InstituteCouncil___________________

Based on various kinds of SMEs, thetheoretical model of SME internationalizationand enriched regional experiences, Dr. JeanPierre A. Verbiest provided has developeddeep insights in the challenges andopportunities for SMEs in the context of AECand SEC development framework of GMS.

SMEs and AEC

Dr. Verbiest mentioned that within ASEAN,vast majority of firms, particularly inCambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar, areSMEs (more than 90%). AEC creates a singleproduction and consumer market, thus aseamless region (ADBI, ASEAN 2030 study),can offer SMEs the opportunity to: (i) accessthe larger ASEAN consumer market, and (ii)enter regional production chains andinternational production networks. But withAEC, SMEs face stronger competition andthe need to raise their competitiveness andmove up the value chain, which has already

been happening in Cambodia and Vietnamwith faster growth of electronics export thanolder ASEAN countries.

To enable SMEs to benefit and grow underthe AEC, on one hand, efficient transportnetworks and logistics, good tradefacilitation and quality growth supportingdomestic policies play a major role.

On the other hand, SMEs need to explorethe opportunities through all tiers ofproduction networks while well position itselfwith comparative advantage andcompetition. To do so, firstly, it is crucial tounderstand the types of SMEs and focus ofAEC. Dr. Verbiest stressed that in the contextof AEC, the growth strategies mainly focuson domestic, extrovert, exporting kinds ofSMEs. In AEC, production networks wereorganized around flagship companies whogovern positions and roles of firms in thenetwork, where the lower tiers of firms (SMEs)can find opportunities as price-breakers andcapacity buffers, e.g. Compaq case andTaiwan computer producers. Thus, for thesecond step, these firms need to enhance itsspecialization, productivity, and links toupgrade skills and knowledge (Plummer andChia) in order to meet the requirements andneeds.

Internationalization of SME and SMEdevelopment in SEC

Furthermore, Dr. Verbiest introduced threetheoretical models for internationalization of



SME - stages model, network model,resource based model–which he believedwere also applicable in developing countrieswith emphasis on the importance of SMEdevelopment in terms of (i) interplay ofknowledge development and foreignmarket commitments; (ii) businessrelationships and networking to seekknowledge and opportunities; (iii) internalorganizational factors.

In developing countries, besidesmanagement issues, he mentioned of themajor constraints for SMEs as lack of financialresources and costs of operations associatedwith venturing in international markets. Majorcosts are associated with (i) infrastructureavailability,(ii)trade facilitation and policyenvironment, and (iii) lack of knowledge,skills and market information. Dr. Verbiestthen pointed out that this is where thedevelopment of an economic corridor suchas the SEC can greatly contribute toreduction of these costs and supportinternationalization efforts of SMEs.

Therefore, Dr. Verbiest pointed out thatexperience shows two key components areneeded along SEC – i) cluster formation and(ii) quality infrastructure including TTF.Industrial clusters are the complement ofproduction networks. Clusters encouragecreation of SMEs and are port of entry forlocal firms/SMEs to enter internationalproduction networks. Quality infrastructureand TTF is essential for network participationand cluster development. Goodinfrastructure (hard and soft) in terms oftelecommunication and logistics (roads,ports, airports, etc) will connect clusters withregional and global market which theneventually will attract anchor firms andsupporting firms including SMEs.

Development Status, Challenges andOpportunities for SMEs Development alongSub-corridors of SEC

In the last part of the presentation, Dr. Verbistdived into three sub-corridors and specific

segments with distinctive features to addressthe challenges and opportunities for SMEsdevelopment along SEC.

1) Northern SEC: Dawei – Bangkok –Aranyaprathet (Sa Kaeo) – Poipet – SiemReap – Stung Treng – Pleiku - QuyNhon

Between Siem Reap (Cambodia) andQuy Nhon (Vietnam), the remote areawill never become a major port butcould mainly serve for domestic SMEs. Abetter development strategy could bemade referring to the successful borderdevelopment between the Ubonprovince of Thailand and theChampasak province of Lao (AbonyiADB 2014). Two provinces of Cambodiaand Vietnam in Banlung-Pleiku borderareas could closely cooperate inestablishing a border economiczone/area to exchange with thecomparative advantages, Pleiku(Vietnam) is a major commodity centeron the central highlands in the middle ofVietnam’s coffee growing area.

2) Southern Coastal SEC: Dawei – Bangkok –Trat-Hat Lek/Cham Yeam border - KohKong – Sihanoukville - Southern

The potential development industriesalong this sub-corridor would beagriculture, food-processing, tourism,light industry and energy.

The industrial zones/SEZ around KohKong and Preah Sihanouk could linkup with Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard;But SEZ might not be the best


clustering way for BanteayMeanchey and KohKong; Given thepotential in agriculture and agro-processing, promoting a BEZ similar tothe Ubon-Champasak model may bethe way to support SMEs;

Infrastructure links to Thailand is ingood condition but border crossingfacilities and TTF still needs muchimprovement;

Agro-processing could be done inCambodia where land and labor ischeaper but major improvements inlogistics cost and trade facilitationincluding improvement of customsprocedure are needed to makeCambodian SMEs competitive.

3) Central SEC: Dawei – Bangkok –Aryanarathet- Phnom Penh – Bavet –MocBai – Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)

This is the major SEC sub-corridor withlarge potentials for SMEdevelopment. It links the two majorhub ports – Laem Chabang(Thailand) and Saigon / Vung Tau(Vietnam) which further directlyconnects to major industrial hubs andinternational production networksbase in Thai Eastern Seaports andHCMC industrial area. Using the routeThrough Thailand, Vietnam andCambodia could better participatein global value chain (GVC);

Cambodia with its lower wagestructure has huge potentialparticularly for SMEs to benefit fromthis proximity. In Cambodia, severalSEZ/BEZ already being developedinPoipet, Phnom Penh andBavet/Manhattan;

Logistics costs and import andexportcosts and processing time inCambodia are much higher thanThailand (Ksoll and Brimble).Cambodia has also faced tradedeficit with less export to Thailandand Vietnam.

In collusion, SME development requiresalignment of cluster environment, soft andhard infrastructure, and sensible domesticpolicies.

Topic II: Dynamics of ASEAN-IndiaRelations with Special Reference toIndia’s North East

Mr. Bhaskar Jyoti MahantaJoint SecretaryMinistry of Heavy Industry and PublicEnterprisesGovernment of India___________________

In his presentation, Mr. Mahanta tracedback the historical similarities andconnectivity between India and ASEANcountries and highlighted the missing butimpartible role of North East Region linkingIndia with ASEAN. He looked into thecooperation progress under India’s newActing East policy and finally concluded withthe way forward.

Historical linkage and cooperation millstone

Mr. Mahanta believed that the relationsbetween ASEAN countries and India hasdeep rooted in the past thousands years’history. With the launch of the Look EastPolicy (LEP) in 1991, India has put efforts tosurge for partnership with most of ASEANcountries in Southeast Asia at various levels.Ever since pursuing LEP till 2009, variousinitiatives have been made to solidify thesub-regional cooperation, including: South Asia Growth Quadrangle Imitative, Kunming Initiative,



Bangladesh China India Myanmar(BCIM) Initiative,

Mekong Ganga Cooperation, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral

Techno-Economic Cooperation(BIMSTEC)

Although above initiatives have not beenfully realized for various political reasons,there remains huge potential for growth bythe partnership with ASEAN.

India - ASEAN Partnership

As India upgraded its policy from the LookEast Policy (LEP) to the Act East Policy (AEP)in 2014, the importance of the North EastRegion of India has been growing to linkIndia with ASEAN while negotiating theRegional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP). However, the tradebetween India and ASEAN has been on thedecline which only realized 65% of target fortrade value in 2015, though the investmentsfrom ASEAN has reportedly been robust.There is a hope that concluding the longnegotiation of RCEP by the end of 2016 willcertainly help to boost trade relationship.

During the negotiation period for RCEP, Indiahas been expressing active cooperationintention with ASEAN as below:

Three concrete proposals on digitalconnectivity, optical transmissionnetwork, e-networks for tele-medicineand tele-education and GPS-aided geo-augmented navigation has beenrecently presented in Vientiane ASEANSubmit;

A USD 100 million budgeted proposal toset up Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) forpublic-private-partnership (PPP) in fourCLMV countries is under development;

The contribution to the Science andTechnology (S&T) has been increased byIndia from USD 1 to 5 million USD to forgenew links with ASEAN to promote co-operation in S&T, particularly in the

domain of renewable energy, space,and ICT.

Three funds, namely ASEAN-IndiaCooperation Fund, Science andTechnology Fund and Green Fund are inoperation to finance a variety of projectson trade and investment, food,agriculture, tourism and ICT etc. ActionPlan for 2016-2020 has been adopted inAugust 2015;

India-ASEAN connectivity projects havebeen started quite some time and needto be completed at the earliest.Deadline for completion of theKaladanmulto-modal transport project inMyanmar and the trilateral highwaylinking India, Myanmar and Thailand are2019 and 2018 respectively. These twoprojects are important to connect withSouth East Asia via the North East Regionof India which will have a vital impact onthe development of the region;

The ASEAN India Study Centre wasinaugurated in August 2016 in NorthEastern Hill University.

Roads Ahead for North East India

With this strong intention and the existingissues in ASEAN, Mr. Mahanta had foreseenbright potentials from the India-ASEANcooperation. He suggested India and itspartners should work more closely on theareas stated below to enhance the regionaldevelopment.

Private sector in India needs to wake upto seize the great opportunities of GMS.North East (NE) India can act as theperfect staging point for trade andinvestments in Myanmar;

The Research and educational institutesand university of NE could play animportant role to forge the partnershipacross the border, such as setting upcampuses in the neighboring countriesand offering scholarships to students fromMyanmar;

In health care sector, India couldparticularly offer its services to GMS by


setting up institutions in NE along with anetwork of infrastructure in India’seastern region;

As for Energy, the NE India and Myanmarshare great possibility of mutual traderelationship, which means NE India couldsupply GMS with power in exchange forGas and Oil.

A NE India –GMS PPP Organization couldalso be set up to implement projects,facilitate trade and mange sharedresources.

Conclusion

At last, Mr. Mahanta concluded thepresentation with three recommendations:

The sincere and strong commitment ofIndia, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Thailandare the key to fulfill the final target of realeconomic and development corridors inboth India and ASEAN;

The two international routes - Myanmar-India Economic Corridor (MIEC) andMyanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highwayand its extension to Lao PDR andCambodia - are very important to unlockthe trade potential linking the NE India toutilize the fertile natural resources inMyanmar and join the ASEAN productionnetwork in Thailand and other GMScounties.

Topic III: New Approaches to SME andEntrepreneurship Financing in ASEAN

Mr. Paul MartinRegional Technical Advisor – Asia / PacificUnited Nations Capital Development Fund(UNCDF)___________________

Mr. Paul Martin began the presentation witha brief introduction to the United NationsCapital Development Fund (UNCDF), whichis the only UN organization mandated toprovide loans and grants in LeastDevelopment Countries (LDCs) through theworld. In this region, UNCDF works with CLMcountries. Besides, UNCDF also incubatevarious financial and development modelsusing Official Development Assistance (ODA)as a way to access sources of public andprivate money.

UNCDF’s finance models are stronglyrelevant to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda(AAAA), a new global framework forfinancing development post-2015 adoptedby UN in 2015and the UN’s SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs) Initiatives.1

To well explain the AAAA, Mr. Martinpresented the graph as below to show theaction areas and actors network forfinancing development. He emphasized thatdomestic resource mobilization is central tothe agenda as well as aligning privateinvestment with sustainable development,along with public policies and regulatoryframeworks to set the right incentives.

1Annual Report 2015: Making Finance Work for The Poor, UNCDF 2016.



The Action Areas for Financing Development, UNCDF

From the UNCDF’s perspective, blendedfinance is used as an instrument to look forfunds from domestic public financingresources, private investment, effective ODAas well as regional financing resources.

Blended Finance

Besides, the tripartite partnership with alllevels of government agencies, privatesector, and citizens, NGOs, and/orcommunity social organizations (CSOs) hasbeen developed to implement UNCDF’sinitiative programs.

Tripartite Partnerships

Furthermore, Mr. Martin mentioned the issuesof SMEs and financing model developmentand role of UNCDF. The picture as belowillustrated the bottleneck between supply

side and demand side for finance. Thebottleneck is just where UNCDF is working onso as to make finance flowing.

Issues of Financing

In the last part of the presentation, Mr. Martinintroduced two typical solutions whichUNCDF has been applying in its programs toimplement the agenda for financing andSMEs development in LDCs. One solution wasdesigned for modeling startups, whileanother for SME upgrades. Both solutionsfollow the step-by-step strategy to de-riskobstacles faced by SMEs along the entireprocess.

Solutions one – Modeling Start Ups

Solutions two – Modeling Upgrade

To further demonstrate how the solutionswork in reality, Mr. Martin shared some goodmodels under Clean Start financing programimplemented by UNCDF in Cambodia.


First case introduced a Singaporeanregistered energy start-up -Sun-eee Pte Ltd. -installing Electrical Supply Systems in ruralCambodia. It seeks to bring greater energyaccess to the rural poor while tackling theenvironmental problem for relying on cheapdiesel fuel. Applying to solution one with sixsteps, on one hand, UNCDF is trying to linkfinancial institutions, including micro-financing institutions or formal financeservice providers, to consumer via SMEs so asto support SMEs to create market-neededproducts. As a result, domestic finance andformal domestic savings has been unlockedand joined with UNCDF to form challengefund up to USD one million to invest inCambodia’s energy sector while bringingbenefits to the poor. On the other hand, inthe whole process, UNCDF also assisted SMEsto make identifiable, affordable, andserviceable products to meet the marketneeds and requirements.

Second and third cases apply solution two toscale up SMEs and diversify businesses withinnovated products, e.g. the solar powersolution is being introduced to rural areasand traditional cooking stoves are beingreplaced by Hydrologic’s High EfficiencyStove. Once complete the five stepsprocess, scaled-up SMEs will be more likely tointegrate into regional production networks.

At the end, Mr. Martin emphasized theregional SMEs incubation opportunities. Heshared the Myanmar – Myawaddy IndustrialZone project, where UNCDF works withgovernment and private sector to blend thefinance into a so-called invest company orregional development company to provideincubators for startups financial services orcapital.

Topic IV: Supply Chain FinanceMechanism for SMEs Integration intoGlobal Value Chain

Mr. Govindasamy Sampath KumarGeneral Manager and Regional HeadSmall Industries Development Bank of India(SIDBI), India___________________

Following Mr. Martin’s presentation, Mr.Kumar presented the focus on SMEs andfinancial services development. He took theperspective of supply chain to introduce thefinance mechanism for SME integrate intoglobal value chain.

Prior going to the concept of Supply ChainFinance, he firstly led participants to haveclearer understanding on the definition ofsupply chain, value chain, and global valuechain, as well as the importance of GVCand the needs for SMEs to integrate intoGVC.

Supply Chain Finance

As the importance of SMEs to GVC has beenwell understood, however, most of SMEsface great challenges in many aspects, ofwhich access to finance is one of thebiggest. The first step to conquer thechallenge is to understand the supply chainfor finance and its key players.

Supply chain finance is a new financingmode tailored specially for SMEs by financialinstitutions. The financial institutions developsynthesis credit for SMEs from the supplychain angle and transforms risk



management aimed at single enterprise torisk management of the whole supply chain.

Supply chain finance breaks the bank'straditional operational model of inspecting aparticular enterprise's static state credit, andconsiders the upstream to downstreamenterprises as a whole to design effectivefinancing plan according to the chainrelationship formed in the transaction andindustrial characters. The supply chainfinance can not only solve SME's capitalproblem, but also promote the competitivepower of the entire supply chain.

Supply Chain Finance MechanismVarious supply chain financing solutionshave been designed to support SMEs.Benefits of Supply Chain Finance (SCF)include:

Short-term credit facility that optimizesworking capital for both the buyers andthe sellers;

Connection of the different links in thechain of a transaction, such as thefinancial institution, the seller, the buyer,which brings them together and helps inlowering financing costs and thusenhancing the business efficiency;

Ensures business continuity seamlessly byavoiding bottlenecks in working capitalneeds at both ends;

Mitigates risk for all players that are partof the supply chain;

Optimize the cash flow by lettingbusinesses to stretch the payment owedto their suppliers, while ensuring thatsuppliers get paid early;

Purchaser's working capital is madebetter use off and the extra cash thesupplier generates, can be used forfurther investment;

Uses a technology platform thatautomates transactions and tracks theentire process, right from invoiceapproval to the settlement process.

In order to be benefitted from the above,policy changes should be made to speedup and regulate international financialtransaction procedure, improve informationaccess, allocate resources from public andprivate sources, develop complimentarysources of debt financing such as privateequity, venture capital, risk capital etc.,create incentives for institutional investors,and promote cross-border venture capitalinvestments.

For SMEs, they need to understand thefinance options by attending capacitybuilding programs provided by banks,government and financial service providers.To be more specific, SMEs could accessfinance through various ways, includingbanks; risk capital and venture capital /private equity; SME exchange, export Linesof credit, hedging Instruments; creditguarantee schemes; cluster financing; microfinance and securitization.___________________


Questions and Answers 5. SESSION III: REALIZINGIMPORTANCE OF SEC IN THECONTEXT OF REGIONAL ANDGLOBAL PRODUCTIONNETWORKS

Mr. Daisuke MatsushimaProfessorNagasaki UniversityJapan___________________

Dawei project and Southern EconomicCorridor (SEC) Development

In his well-thought out and interestinglydelivered presentation, Mr. DaisukeMatsushima illustrated the emergingproduction network comprising Japan,Korea, China, India, ASEAN and Mekongcountries. He believed that as ASEAN andGMS becoming the center of the regionalproduction network building, clusterslinkages is getting more and more importantfor regional economic cooperation andintegration, since clusters linkage wouldencourage the complementary relationsrather than competitive relations betweenindustries crossing borders in this region.

As the important nod to the SEC, thedevelopment of Dawei deep-sea port andspecial economic zone (SEZ) project willsignificantly facilitate the linkage of theMekong region with its eastern market(Japan, Korean and China region) andwestern market (India and Middle Eastregion). Through the Dawei project, more jobopportunities will be created to attract thereturning of Myanmar labors, as well as freerflow of skilled labors, to develop local

Q: What are the opportunities and challengesfor SMEs and SME clusters when developing aSEZ?

A: The purpose of SEZ is to attract FDI withlower taxation for the participated business soas to increase trade, investment andemployment. Domestic SMEs should see theSEZ as the bridge to sub-contract with theindustry of SEZ, and then integrate into theregional production networks and valuechains.

Q: Is there any feasibility study to look into howeach province will benefit from the SECdevelopment?

A: As part of the SEC project, MI hasconducted one study on market and valuechain mapping to identify he bottlenecks andadvantages of each province. Certain SMEclusters have also been identified in eachprovince. Mi is also now preparing a baselinestudy to set up the performance indicators ofSMEs and BDS. The study results will be sharedby the end of the year.

Q: In UNCDF presentation, we came to knowabout blended finance and tri-partitepartnership between government, privatesector (usually large organization who is ableto invest) and development partners/ NGOs/CBOs joining hands in investment. In thesemodels, how to guarantee the developmentinclusivity with private sector, especially inSMEs’ participation?

A: In terms of inclusivity, in the case of Africaand Myanmar, the UNCDF cooperates withgovernment, project developer (usuallyprivate sector) and citizen’s council toestablish an investment company, which iscapitalized by UNCDF and go to the marketfor loan. UNCDF could work directly withprivate sector to guarantee SMEs to accesscommercial loans. Besides, UNCDF also guideSMEs to identify the interests of ODA so as toaccess the source of finance.



businesses and stimulate the construction ofinfrastructure. Dawei project is expected tonot only bring the robust growth toMyanmar‘s economy with up to 11% of GDPcontribution, but also an inclusive andsustainable development model.

By foreseeing the vital potentials of Daweiproject, Japan joined Thailand andMyanmar in February 2015 to co-developthe Dawei SEZ by providing technical andfinancial support. The decision ofparticipation was also made according tothe emerging challenges and needs ofJapan economy.

Transnational Innovation Platform – OtagaiForum

Japan is facing serious challenges of agingsociety, frequent disasters, and lackinginnovation. This results a vast needs foryounger labors, stable supply chains andmanufacture base and innovationopportunities to recover Japan economy.With this background, when both ofdomestic and oversea Japanese enterprisessuffered a great loss from tsunami and megaflood happened in Japan and Thailandrespectively in March and November of 2011,Japan raised a new concept –Otagai, atransnational innovation platform to buildcluster-to-cluster business alliances crossingwhole region to prevent supply chaindisruption caused by any unexpecteddisasters.

14 Otagai forums have been organized inJapan to build linkages between Japaneseenterprises with its counterparts in ASEANcountries in the area of technology, tourism,trade and finance. Through the Otagaiforum, Japan highlighted its corecompetencies on timely Japanese logisticssystem, high technology for environmentand energy conservation and Japanesestyle of project management for safety andreliability. As the results, within two years, 51projects have been set up between Japanand ASEAN countries. The following potential

business sectors have also been identified inthe Otagai forum:

Upgrading food processing industries ofagro-based countries by applyingJapanese high technology;

Upgrading the supporting industries ofASEAN production bases by linkingmachinery clusters between upstreamand downstream;

Combining special metal fabrication(core technology) with ASEAN localwisdom;

Linking sustainable tourism clusters toenhance regional tourism value chain;

Setting up traditional medicine businessalliances to develop new health caremarket for the inclusive growth.

In order to facilitate building clusters businessalliance in this region, the forum has alsoaddressed several policy recommendationsfor both of ASEAN countries and Japan asblow:

In collaboration with Japanese localgovernments, organizing networkingconference and workshop both in Japanand ASEAN, e.g. Otagai Forum, tocatalyze new industries;

Conducting a joint study to identify themissing links between ASEAN and Japan,to disseminate Otagai project methodsand mechanism to overcome themissing links, to initiate Otagai pilotprojects, e.g. development of Asianentrepreneurs, sustainable tourism Clusterlinkage and cultivation of consumermarket;

Jointly endorse the policy environmentfor implementing the Otagai project withincentive mechanism andstandardization for new combinationtoward innovation hub in ASEAN.

Proposal for Future SEC DevelopmentAt the end, Mr. Matsushima proposedfollowing strategies to realizeaforementioned potentials of SEC.


Sustainable Energy Development (SED)Implement demonstrate projects atDawei to promote sustainable andrenewable energy, such as tidal currentpower generation system, biomasspower generation system and energyconservation system.

New Industry Development (NID)Develop new fisheries, rubber and agro-based industries, taking good use oflocal materials with new technology.

Human Resource Development (HRD)Enhancing HRD by conducting jointcourses between Dawei University andJapanese universities; donating desktopcomputers for IT education.

___________________

Questions and Answers

Q: Although Japan, Myanmar and Thailandgovernments have agreed to co-developDawei, in the past two years, the developmentprogress was very slow. Who will invest Daweiproject at this moment?

A: Giant private companies from Japan haveshowed great interests to invest in Dawei, butpolitical stability is the main concern ofJapanese investors. The solution could initiatethe small business matching and investment atgrass-root level through Otagai forum andinvest step by step.

Q: What environmental and social impacts willbe caused by the SEC development? How doyou think of the economic development andenvironment conservation?

A: Economic Corridor approach is applied intothe SEC development. Through the model ofOtagai, Japan could share its advancedenvironment-friendly technology and projectmanagement to contribute to the sustainabledevelopment at Dawei and SEC in a longterm.

Q: In Dawei project, how Japanesegovernment will assist the cross borderinfrastructure and regional industry growth? Asyou mentioned the tsunami and flood in 2011,is there any risk mitigation tools have been putin place for financial sector?

A: During the mega flood in Thailand in 2011,Japanese government set up the back-upsystem to call for support from banks, andsupply assistant from competitors of theaffected companies. However, due tocompetition, it won’t really as effective as theOtagai, the business continuity mechanism,which provides mutual and timely supplychain assistant from sister clusters crossing theregion.

As for the financial sector, insurance companyand banks has been introduced in the cycleof business risk management and Otagaimechanism. Besides, the 10th Otagai forumhas also introduced transnational supply chainfinancing between big enterprise and itscontracted suppliers in the region to securethe stable supply chain assistant in anycircumstance.



6. CONCLUDING SEESION

Dr. Watcharas Leelawath, Executive Directorof Mekong Institute, concluded the seminarwith the brief summary of the outputs. Hecongratulated ASEAN, especially the CMTVcountries for its achievements to realize thegoal of AEC for 2015, and alsocomplimented the contribution of GMS forenhancing the regional physical and non-physical connectivity through economiccorridors initiatives.

Nevertheless, as the regional integrationprocess is still going on, he called for deepercooperation and commitments from AMSand GMS countries to implement thestrategic measures under AEC Blueprint 2025and GMS strategic frameworks 2011-2022. Heencouraged development partners ofASEAN and GMS to share good practices,updated technologies through investment toenhance the regional economicdevelopment in a sustainable way so as tobenefit from a win-win model. He has alsopromised that MI will continually act theintermediary role to create linkagesbetween international, regional, nationaland local levels of stakeholders includinggovernments, public and private sectors,and development partners, gathering all theresources to facilitate cross border trade andinvestment and development of SMEs viapolicy dialogue, capacity building trainings,researches and trade promotion networking.

At last, he expressed sincere appreciation tothe speakers and participants for sharingtheir valuable thoughts and experience onAEC and GMS regional economiccooperation, development and integration.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1: SEMINAR EVALUATION

Composition of Participants

Participant’s composition (by Country)

A total of 62 participants including regionalspeakers, delegates of CMVT countries andparticipants from 19 provinces of SECattended the regional seminar, of which 25(40%) from the Cambodia, 5 (8%) fromMyanmar, 17 (28%) from Thailand, 10 (16%)from Vietnam and 5 (8%) from othercountries.

Participant’s composition (by sector and gender)

26 participants (42% of total 62) are fromprivate sectors representing members orrepresentatives of Chamber of Commerceand business associations from four countriesalong SEC. 36 (58%) participants arerepresenting public sectors including traderelated governmental agencies, researchinstitutions and international and regionalorganizations. 14 participants are femalewhich accounted for 23% of total 62participants. Female participation rate is

2540%

58%

1728%

1016%

58%

Cambodia MyanmarThailand VietnamOthers

32

16

4

10

Public

Private

Female Male

62


much higher in private sector standing at70% in comparison with public sector.

Results of Evaluation Questionnaire

In order to reflect the effectiveness of theseminar, an evaluation questionnaire wasprepared and circulated among theparticipants. Out of total of 62 participants,32 filled out the evaluation questionnaires.The evaluation results, comments andsuggestions are listed as below:

1) How well did the Seminar meet itsobjectives?

4 12 (38%) 16 (50%) 8 (25%) 12 (38%)3 14 (44%) 12 (38%) 17 (53%) 12 (38%)2 5 (16%) 3 (9%) 6 (19%) 7 (22%)1 1 (3%) 1 (3%) 1 (3%) 1 (3%)

Note: A scale from 1 to 4 was given to measure how the seminarmet the four objectives: Fully Met (4), Partially Met (3), Met (2)and Not Met (1).

97% of participants believed that theseminar has met the four objectives asbelow:

Objective 1: to discuss the significanceand impact of AEC and implementationprogress as envisaged in the AECBlueprint 2025;

Objective II: to update and shareinformation on regional trade, cross-border trade, trade facilitation, small andmedium-sized enterprises (SME)development and financing, and othersrelevant issues in the integration process;

Objective III: to increase comprehensiveawareness of AEC for the governmentofficials and related stakeholders fromprivate sectors of CMTV, developmentpractitioners, and concernedstakeholders;

Objective IV: to serve as an interactiveplatform for the project stakeholders toexchange innovative ideas andinformation that facilitates thedevelopment of SEC through enhancingcompetitiveness of SMEs;

2) How the knowledge gained from theevent is relevant to work?

97% of participants believed that theknowledge gained from the event is relevantto their work. In particular, 47% ofparticipants considered most relevant.

3) What did you like about the seminar?

1 Seminar Topics and DiscussionSessions 30 (94%)

2 Staff from Mekong Institute 22 (69%)3 Venue of the Seminar &

Atmosphere 16 (50%)

4 Time Management 15 (47%)5 Accommodations 15 (47%)6 Food & Beverages 14 (44%)7 Dinner Reception 8 (25%)8 Others, Please Explain Below: 1 (3%)

Above multi indicators were given toparticipants to measure the level ofsatisfaction. The top satisfaction refers to theseminar topics and discussion sessionsfollowed with the support from MI staff.

4) Effectiveness of the Seminar

The indicators were given to measure theeffectiveness of seminar, such as level oforganization, adequacy and relevance of

Objective I Objective II Objective III Objective IV

4 3 2 1

1547%

1135%

39%

39%

Most relevant (4) Moderately relevant (3)Slightly relevant (2) Not relevant (1)



topics provided, quality of speakers anddiversity of the participants.

4 17 (53%) 14 (44%) 13 (41%) 10 (31%)3 11 (34%) 15 (47%) 15 (47%) 19 (59%)2 3 (9%) 3 (9%) 2 (6%) 2 (6%)1 1 (3%) 0 2 (6%) 1 (3%)Note: Fully Effective (4); Partially Effective (3);Effective(2); Not Effective (1)

5) Suggested topics/ activities for futureevents.

Suggested Topics: SME development stakeholders mapping

and their actual needs; Market development approach for

sustainable development of SMEs alongthe SEC;

Cluster linkages and clusters relateddevelopment for MSMEs;

More detail on SME competitiveness; Economic crisis and growth in ASEAN; Value/ supply chain in the region; Logistics development; More specific financing sources and

models for SME

Suggested activities: SME linkage initiative Training, survey and seminar Field study

Comments: The presentations were too long and

they tried to cover too many contentswhich leave very little opportunities todiscuss and exchange innovative ideas;

The seminar has raised basic issues fordeveloping AEC in general, however, thenext time should focus on specific issuesfrom realistic cooperation between localproject;

Very useful update on current andplanned activities in GMS;

Invite more speakers in the future whoare professionals, specialist fromconsultation organizations, universities,research centers and others.

6) Overall assessment for this regionalseminar program

At last, the participants highly complimentedthe regional seminar with 100% of satisfaction.

Organization ofthe seminar

Topics providedare adequateand relevant

Quality ofspeakers

Diversity of theparticipants

4 3

1753%

1238%

39%

00%

Very satisfied (4) Neutrally satisfied (3)Satisfied (2) Not Satisfied (1)

34 REGIONAL SEMINAR ON:ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC): SHARING PERSPECTIVE, KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCEKhonKaen, Thailand | September 19, 2016

APPENDIX 2: PROGRAM SCHEDULE AND AGENDA

08:30 - 09:00 Registration

09:00 - 09:15 Welcome RemarksDr. Watcharas Leelawath, Executive Director, MI

09:15 - 09:30Opening RemarksMr. Daisuke Hiratsuka, President, Bangkok Research Center (BRC), IDE -JETRO

09:30 – 09:45 Keynote SpeechH.E. Sok Siphana, Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia

09:45 - 10:00 Group Photo, Coffee Break, and Networking

10:00 – 10:30 Session I: ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025Keynote presentation: Dr. Watcharas Leelawath, Executive Director, MI

10:30 - 12:00

Panel Discussion I: AEC Blueprint 2025 –Reflections from Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam (CMTV)

Moderator: Dr. Watcharas Leelawath, Executive Director, MI

Cambodia: Mr. Suon Vichea, Director, Trade Training and ResearchInstitute, Ministry of Commerce

Vietnam: Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong NGA, Ministry of Industry and Trade

Thailand: Mr. Vitat Vajropala, Director, Bureau of Trade CapacityEnhancement, Department of Trade Negotiations, Ministry ofCommerce

Myanmar: Mr. Aung Kyi Soe, Joint Secretary General, Union ofMyanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry(UMFCCI)

12:00 - 13:30 Lunch

13:30 - 14:00

Session II: Cross-Border Trade and Trade Facilitation in SEC

Keynote Presentation: Ms. Kanya S. Sasradipoera, Senior Trade Specialist,Southeast Asia Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB) ThailandResident Mission

14:00 - 14:15 Discussion

REGIONAL SEMINAR ON

ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (AEC) SHARINGPERSPECTIVE, KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCEKhonKaen, Thailand

ONEDAYSeptember 19, 2016


KhonKaen, Thailand | September 19, 201635

14:15 - 15:45

Panel Discussion II: SME Development and Financing: Sharingexperiences

Moderator: Mr. Madhurjya Kumar Dutta, Director, TIF

Opportunities and Challenges for SMEs in the context of ASEANeconomic integrationBy Dr. Jean Pierre A. Verbiest, Policy Advisor, Mekong Institute

Dynamics of ASEAN-India Relations with Special Reference to India’sNorth EastBy Mr. Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of HeavyIndustry and Public Enterprises, Government of India

New Approaches to SME and Entrepreneurship Financing in ASEANBy Mr. Paul Martin, Regional Technical Advisor – Asia / Pacific, UnitedNations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

Supply Chain Finance Mechanism for SMEs Integration into GlobalValue ChainBy Mr. Govinda samy Sampath Kumar, General Manager andRegional Head, Small Industries Development Bank of India(SIDBI),India

15:45 – 16:00 Discussion

16:00 - 16:15 Coffee Break and Networking

16:15 - 16:45Session III: Realizing importance of SEC in the context of regional andglobal production networksMr. Daisuke Matsushima, Professor, Nagasaki University, Japan

16:45 – 17:00 Discussion and Closing Remarks

17:00 – 17:30 Seminar Evaluation


APPENDIX 3: SPEAKERS AND MODERATORS PROFILES

Mr. Daisuke Hiratsuka

PresidentBangkok Research Center (BRC),Bangkok Institute of Developing Economies - Japan External TradeOrganization (IDE-JETRO), Thailand

________________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Daisuke Hiratsuka has served as President of Bangkok ResearchCenter (BRC), IDE- JETRO since December 2015.

Mr. Daisuke Hiratsuka was the Executive Vice President of JETRO, incharge of relation with the Southeast Asia and the Oceania regions,as well as in charge of the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) -JETRO during the period 2012 – 2015.

Mr. Daisuke Hiratsuka joined to IDE starting academic career there in1979. He also worked as the Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, Politics,

and Economics, Chiba University during 2001-2003, and Visiting Professor, Graduate School ofInternational Relation, Ritsumeikan University during 2006-2009.

Mr. Daisuke Hiratsuka is the author of the three books: (i) East Asia's De Facto EconomicIntegration (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); (ii) East Asia’s Economic Integration: Progress andBenefit (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); and (iii) Input Trade and Production Networks in East Asia(Edward Elgar, 2010).

Mr. Daisuke Hiratsuka has also been invited to many high level international conferences: the2012 UNIDO Round Table, “Asia 2050, the Sustainable Route to Prosperity”, in Vienna, Austria;the ESCAP High-level Policy Dialogue and Eleventh Bank of Indonesia Annual InternationalSeminar, on “Macroeconomic Policies for Sustainable Growth with Equity in East Asia “, inYogyakarta, Indonesia in May 2013; and OECD Forum, “Trade in Value Added: The WorldFactory,” in Paris France, in June 2013.



H.E. SokSiphana, J.D., Ph.D.

Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia

________________________________________________________________________________________

Dr.SokSiphana has served as a practicing attorney and theManaging Partner at SokSiphana & associates, a law and consultingfirm specialized in international trade, corporate and banking law inPhnom Penh since 2009. Deeply passionate for the development ofhis country, he has dedicated a large amount of time to serve asthe Chairman of the Board of Cambodia Development ResourceInstitute (CDRI), Cambodia’s oldest and prominent independentresearch institute since 2011. He was appointed by Prime MinisterSamdech Decho Hun Sen to hold the current position as Advisor ofthe Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), as Advisor to the

Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC), and as Advisor to the Council for Developmentof Cambodia (CDC) with rank of Minister in August 2009 and November 2011 respectively.

Since Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2012 Dr. Sokwas attached to H.E. Hor Namhong,Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs where he served, among other advisoryfunctions: as Member of the ASEAN Task Force on Substantive Issues; ASEAN India EminentPerson Group Co-Chair; Eminent Person for the Lower Mekong Initiative; ASEAN CambodianSherpa to G20 and High Level Cambodian Representative to G20 Development WorkingGroup; Cambodia Representative to the High Level Task Force to Strengthen the ASEANSecretariat and Related Organs. SOM for the Mekong Japan; Mekong ROK; MekongLancang; Mekong Ganga Cooperation. Aside from ASEAN matters in general, he advises theRoyal Government and assist in the preparation of the following Foreign Ministers Meetingand Summit portfolios: Asia Europe (ASEM); Francophonie; and Mekong cooperation withJapan, ROK, China, India (Mekong Ganga), US (LMI and FLM).

Previously, from 1999 to 2005, Dr. Sok served as Secretary of State (Vice Minister) at theMinistry of Commerce, where he worked extensively on issues related to trade policies anddevelopment, commercial legal framework and economic integration. During his service atthe Ministry, he was also a negotiator in Cambodia’s accession to the World TradeOrganization (WTO). From October 2005 to July 2009 he served as Director at theInternational Trade Center (ITC) a joint technical agency of the UNCTAD and the WTO inGeneva, Switzerland.


Dr. WatcharasLeelawath

Executive DirectorMekong Institute (MI)

__________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Watcharas Leelawath is the Executive Director of Mekong Institute(MI). Prior to joining MI, he was the Deputy Executive Director of theInternational Institute for Trade and Development (ITD) in-charge ofplanning, supervising and conducting research projects, trainingprograms and various capacity building activities.

Dr. Leelawath earned his undergraduate degree from ChulalongkornUniversity and his MA and Ph.D. in Economics from the University ofKansas, USA. Right after obtaining his Ph.D., he worked as AssistantProfessor of Economics at the University of Minnesota, Morris, USA

where he taught International Economics and Mathematics for Economists.

Dr. Leelawath is a trade economist with a strong interest in trade and developmentcooperation issues under GMS and ASEAN frameworks. He has extensive researchexperience in the fields of International Labor Migration, Regional Economic Integration. Hehas written several papers for presentation in local and international conferences, haspublished several articles on trade related topics and has co-authored a book entitled“Economics and Trade in Goods: An Introduction.” He provided his expertise in a number ofcapacity building activities organized by ITD, ADB, UNESCAP, WTO and Thailand InternationalCooperation Agency (TICA).



Mr. SuonVichea

DirectorTrade Training and Research InstituteMinistry of CommerceCambodia

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Suon Vichea is now the Director of Trade Training and ResearchInstitute (TTRI), Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia.

Mr. Suon Vichea has 11-year experience in teaching at differentuniversities in Cambodia in subject of Intellectual Property Law;Economics, Macroeconomics; Microeconomics, InternationalEconomics, International Business, Management, Marketing,Organization Behavior, Business Finance, Financial Managementand Financial Institution.

Mr. Suon Vichea with progressive working experience of “15 years” at Intellectual PropertyDepartment, directly engaged in International Cooperation and Legal Affairs for two yearswith responsibility for cooperation inside and outside country with concerned institution,international organizations and other countries on Intellectual Property Affairs andcoordination to promote and monitor the implementation of all Intellectual obligationscommitted by Cambodia during the accession to the WTO. Examine the Cambodianobligation on Intellectual Property through promotion of drafting laws related to theimplementation of the agreements in which Cambodia is a contracting party, andcoordinates to conduct study research on treaties, conventions, and any agreementsadministered by WIPO and WTO in order to determine its effects and benefit prior to theaccession of Cambodia as a member, and cooperate with concerned institution to receiveTechnical Assistance of International Communities and International Organization.

He earned LLM (Master) in Intellectual Property from WIPO-ITC-Turin University in Italy;Postgraduate Diploma in Economic Development from IDE-JETRO in Japan; MBA inInternational Business from UTCC in Thailand; MBA from Norton University incorporation withAteneo de Manila University; Bachelor of Business Administration from Royal University inCambodia; and Associate Degree on Business from National Institute of Business. Also, heobtained many certificates from various countries.


Mr. AungKyiSoe

Joint Secretary GeneralUnion of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce andIndustry (UMFCCI), Myanmar

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. AungKyiSoe is the Joint Secretary General of the Union ofMyanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry(UMFCCI), Myanmar, meanwhile he is also the Managing Director ofEastern Wealth Trading Co.,Ltd., Aung Shwe Thee Company andMyanmar Liquefied Petroleum Gas Group.

The UMFCCI stands as a non-government Apex Organization (NGO)representing and safeguarding the interests of the private businesssector. UMFCCI is also acting as a bridge between the state and

the private sector. Under the umbrella of UMFCCI, there are eight StateChambers, eight Regional Chambers, nine Border trade Associations and 47 tradeassociations.

Eastern Wealth Trading Co., Ltd was established in 1997 in Myanmar. The main business ofthe company is production of Oxygen and Nitrogen gas. The company owned threefactories, two of which located in Yangon and one in Mandalay. Aung Shwe Thee Companywas established in 2009 and deal with construction and development of condominiums,industrial park and other construction works. Myanmar Liquefied Petroleum Gas Groupmainly focuses on importing petroleum and distributing locally since2012.



Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Nga

Ministry of Industry and TradeVietnam

__________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Nga is currently the Deputy Director of ASEAN Division, Asia – PacificMarket Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade of Viet Nam. Before taking the currentmanagement role, Ms. Nga served as an official at Asia – Pacific Market Department, MOITfor the period 2011 – 2014. Before joining MOIT, Ms. Nga worked in the private sector.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Nga earned Master of Business and Administration (MBA), SolvayBusiness School, the Universitélibre de Bruxelles, Belgium (2013), and Master of Art, SunderlandUniversity, United Kingdom (2009).


Mr. VitatVajropala

DirectorBureau of Trade Capacity Enhancement, Department of TradeNegotiationsMinistry of CommerceThailand

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Vitat Vajropala is currently the Executive Director of Bureau ofTrade Capacity Enhancement Department of Trade NegotiationsMinistry of Commerce, Thailand (2015 – present).

Before taking the role of an Executive Director at the Bureau of TradeCapacity Enhancement Department, Mr. Vitat Vajropala handledvarious important tasks as Chief of AEC Information Center Section(2013 – 2015); Director ASEAN Bilateral Cooperation Division (2010 –2013); Division Director of CIS and Balkan States Cooperation Division

(2007 – 2010), Senior Trade Analyst of the Bureau of East Asia Department of TradeNegotiations (2005 – 2007); and Economist of the Bureau of Trade Policy, Department ofBusiness Economics (1998 -2005).

Mr. Vitat Vajropala has sound experience in (i) Market Access Group, APEC; (ii) FTA Thailand– Australia, Joint Feasibility Study; (iii) FTA ASEAN-CHINA; (iv) Thailand – Russia BilateralNegotiations under the process of Russian Accession to WTO; and ASEAN Harmonized TariffNomenclature Task Force

Mr. Vitat Vajropala earned Master of Applied Finance, The University of Melbourne (1997),Master of Science in Business Economics at the National Institute of DevelopmentAdministration (1993); and Bachelor of Economics at Thammasat University (1989)



Ms. Kanya S. Sasradipoera

Senior Trade SpecialistSoutheast Asia DepartmentAsian Development Bank (ADB) – Thailand Resident Mission

__________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. Kanya Satyati is the Senior Trade Specialist for the Southeast AsiaDepartment of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). She joined theADB in 2009 as Regional Cooperation Specialist for the Central AsiaRegional Cooperation (CAREC), and subsequently transferred toSoutheast Asia Department of ADB in 2011 as the focal point of theADB’s cooperation with ASEAN, Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines– East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), and Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT). In 2013, she was assigned to bethe focal person for ADB’s support in Trade and Transport Facilitationprograms in Southeast Asia Region.

Prior to joining ADB, Ms. Kanya served at the ASEAN Secretariat in 1996 as the AssistantProgramme Officer for Industrial Cooperation for Economic Cooperation Bureau, thenmoved to management team of the ASEAN-UNDP subregional program on trade andinvestment in 1999 until 2002. She rejoined the ASEAN Secretariat in 2004 as the Senior Officerfor Trade in Goods unit of the Trade and Trade Facilitation Division of the Bureau forEconomic Integration, until left to ADB in 2009.

Ms. Kanya earned Bachelor degree in Metallurgical engineering from the University ofIndonesia and Master in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore.


Dr. Jean Pierre A. Verbiest

Honorable Advisor to Mekong Institute Council

__________________________________________________________________________________

Jean-Pierre A. Verbiest is a senior economist based in Southeast Asiasince over 35 years. He holds a MSC in Econometrics from theUniversiteLibre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) and a doctorate ineconomics from Oxford University (UK). After a short academic careerat the Mons campus of the Catholic University of Louvain, he joinedthe Development Planning Division of the United Nations Commissionfor Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand in 1981 as aresearch economist, moving to the Economic Research Departmentof the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, the Philippines, in1989. He held several senior positions in the ADB including senior

programs officer for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Manager, Strategy and Policy Department,Assistant Chief Economist (Macro-economics and Finance) and Country Director in Viet Nam(1996-2000) and in Thailand (2005-2010).

He was a principal consultant (ASEAN 2030 study) for the Asian Development Bank Institute(ADBI, Tokyo) based in Bangkok (2011-2012). In 2013-2014, he was the Lead Economist(consultant) for an ADB Myanmar comprehensive diagnostic study. In 2015-2016, heauthored a regional cooperation and integration strategy for ADB in Myanmar. He is PolicyAdvisor to the Mekong Institute, and a partner in West Indochina Ltd (Myanmar). He teachesinternational finance in the Vietnam Master Program in Management of Banking andFinance of the Solvay-Brussels School of Economics and Management (together with theNational Economics University in Hanoi). Since 2014, he is also a Beachheads Advisor to NewZealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE). His principal research interests are macroeconomicpolicies in East and Southeast Asian countries, economic reforms in Myanmar and regionaleconomic and financial cooperation and integration in Asia.



Mr. BhaskarJyotiMahanta

Joint SecretaryMinistry of Heavy Industry and Public EnterprisesGovernment of India

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Bhaskar .Jyoti Mahanta, Joint Secretary to the Ministry of HeavyIndustry & Public Enterprises, Government of India is a Member ofIndian Federal Police Force. Mr. Mahanta, has held some of theimportant positions and contributed successfully in experimenting theState response to conflict by introducing measures of rehabilitation ofvictims of violence which has been recognized widely.After having joined the Department of Heavy Industry, Mr. Mahantahas been instrumental in pursuing the Government policy in respect ofproviding necessary fillip to the strategic sectors of the Governmentcontrolled Public Sector Enterprises and facilitating Joint ventures and

FDI thereof. Several companies under his command are also exploring economic interfacingin Europe as well as South-East Asia. Mr. Mahanta is also a writer and takes keen interest indiverse fields like culture and sports.Mr. Mahanta is also the Managing Trustee of the non-Governmental Organisation calledSrimanta Foundation through which he has been trying to garner popular and State supportfor renewing ties of India’s North-East with South-East Asia. His Organisation is presentingmaking plans for inter-faith dialogue of the Indigenous communities of India’s North-East withMyanmar and beyond.


Mr. Paul Martin

Regional Technical Advisor – Asia / PacificUnited Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Paul Martin joined the United Nations Capital Development Fund(UNCDF) after working as an international consultant in the fields ofgovernance and local development since 1994. He has throughoutinternational career with a limited number of recognized internationalagencies and European consultancy companies that include; (1)UNCDP, (2) OSCE, (3) GOPA, (4) IMC, and (5) COWI.

Mr. Paul Martin also has enriched experience in working with nationalgovernment at senior levels in transition economies (Russia, China)and in the developing economies of the Middle East, Eastern Europe,

and Africa. I have also worked in post conflict environments and with LDCs in these areas.

Within the Asia region Mr. Paul Martin has recently spent a considerable amount of time inCambodia and Myanmar respectively. In the case of the former he was engaged by UNDPand GIZ focusing upon the de-concentration and de-centralization process. In Myanmar, heworked within government institutions (Ministry of Economic Development and NationalPlanning) being engaged by UNDP and the E. In this role he facilitated in partnership withABD the long term national plan and contributive regional development plan inclusive ofgrowth projections, investment requirements, and strategic policy. Both plans are developedas pro-growth strategies that articulate structural transformation.



Mr. GovindasamySampath Kumar

General Manager and Regional HeadSmall Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), India

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Sampath Kumar has over 24 years of extensive experience inDevelopment Banking encompassing refinance, project appraisal,venture capital, Infrastructure finance, forex, business development,NPA management, promotional and developmental activities, microfinance, resources management and asset reconstruction areas.Currently, he is associated with Small Industries Development Bank ofIndia (SIDBI), Hyderabad, India, a premier All India Financial Institutionfor Small and Medium Enterprises, as General Manager. Hecompleted the deputation to India SME Asset Reconstruction Limitedas Chief Financial Officer.

Mr. Sampath Kumar also takes the role of a lecturer on SIDBI in promotion of MSMEs in variousBanker Zonal Training Centres, different meetings organised by MSME, Govt of India, differentstate level meetings, seminars, workshops etc. Besides, delivered lectures and madepresentations on the role of SIDBI in Microcredit and disseminating the importance of roleplayed by Micro enterprises in the economy in various fora such as workshops organised byMicro Finance Institutions, MFI seminars, etc.

Mr. Sampath Kumar is the Director on the Boards of (i) Andhra Pradesh State FinancialCorporation (APSFC); (ii) Telangana State Financial Corporation(TSFC); (iii) Andhra PradeshIndustrial Technical Consultancy Organisation (APITCO), (iv) Future Financial Services Pvt. Ltd(FFSL), (v) HITVEL Fund and Cyberabad Fund (Chairman of both the Funds); (vi) Member ofSubcommittee formed for MSMEs by Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; (vii) Member of SLIICfor MSMEs, RBI Empowered Committee on MSMEs, Committee on PMEGP of Telangana State;and (viii) nominee director in MPFC (MP State Finance Corporation) and MPCON (MadhyaPradesh Consultancy Organisation) while posted at Bhopal.

Mr. Sampath Kumar studied MBA program in Finance at Punjab Technical, India, andattended other training courses on (i) Teaching Assistantship in St. John’s University,Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Utopia Parkways, Jamaica, New York, USA; (ii) PGDFM(Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management) from Annamalai University, India; (iii)PGDBA (Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration) from Annamalai University, India;(iv) PGDCA (Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications) from Bharathiar University,India


Mr. Daisuke Matsushima

ProfessorNagasaki UniversityJapan__________________________________________________________________________________

Professor Daisuke Matsushima is now the Policy Advisor to MekongInstitute. Besides, he served as a professor at Nagasaki University (2015– Present); Vice President of Otagai Forum Association (2014 –Present); Advisor for Ministry of Industry of Thailand (2015 – Present).He used to work as the Policy Advisor to the Government of theKingdom of Thailand at the National Economic and SocialDevelopment Board during the period 2011–2015. Earlier, ProfessorDaisuke Matsushima worked for Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI), Japanese Government (Previously the Ministry ofInternational Trade and Industry, MITI), 1998 – 2015.

Professor Daisuke Matsushima earned Master degree at Harvard University, USA (withScholarship for Officials provided by the Personnel Office of the Government of Japan); wasawarded “Special Thesis Award” from University of Tokyo September 2003 – June 2005; andobtained BBA degree at University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan.

In addition, Professor Daisuke Matsushima was the First Truck Candidate for Senior Officer inthe Central Government of Japan, 1997



Mr. Madhurjya Kumar Dutta

DirectorTrade and Investment FacilitationMekong InstituteThailand__________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Madhurjya Kumar Dutta is currently the Director of Trade &Investment Facilitation at Mekong Institute (MI). Prior to joining MI, heserved as Research Director of Economic Institute of Cambodia (EIC)and Adviser of Cambodia India Entrepreneurship DevelopmentInstitute (a bilateral project of Governments of India and Cambodia).Mr. Dutta has also been recently conferred as the Honorary Advisorto the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, Cambodiathrough a royal degree by the Prime Minister and the King of theKingdom of Cambodia.

Mr. Dutta has over 20 years of experience in private sector development in South Asian andSouth East Asian countries. His key areas of interest are entrepreneurship, SME developmentand trade facilitation. He has designed and implemented several multilateral capacitydevelopment projects on SME and Trade Facilitation in the GMS including the ‘Private SectorDevelopment in the East West Economic Corridor (EWEC)’ and ‘SME Competitiveness inSouthern Economic Corridor’ (SEC) funded by Japan; Trade Facilitation Project in the NorthSouth Economic Corridor (NSEC)’ funded by China; ‘Integration of CLMV Economies intoAEC’ funded by New Zealand, Certified Logistic Master Program funded by Republic ofKorea among others.

He has also provided consultancy to various agencies - UNESCAP, ADB, World Bank, GIZ,UNDP, IFC, ILO, USAID, IFAD, OXFAM, World Vision, Chemonics International etc. on SMEpolicy development, value chain, tourism, investment feasibility, green business, privatesector innovations etc.

Mr. Dutta earned his Master Degree from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi andan additional Master of Science in Regional Development Planning and Management fromTechnical University of Dortmund, Germany. He also holds an advanced diploma in regionaldevelopment planning.


APPENDIX 4: DIRECTORY OF PARTICIPANTS

Speakers and Moderators (14)

NAME ORGANIZATION & ADDRESS CONTACTSMr. Daisuke Hiratsuka

President

Bangkok Research Center (BRC)JETRO – IDE

16th Fl., Nantawan Building, 161Rajdamri Road, Patumwan,Bangkok, 10330, Thailand

Tel: +66 2 253 6441 (ext. 142)E-mail:[email protected]

H.E. Dr. Sok Siphana

Advisor

Advisor to the Royal Governmentof Cambodia

C/O 9 – 13, St.7, SangkatChaktomuk Khan Doun Penh,Phnom Penh, Cambodia

E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. WatcharasLeelawath

Executive Director

Mekong Institute

123 Mittraphap Rd., Muang District,Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand

Tel: + 66 (0) 43-202-411-2(ext. 4151)E-mail:[email protected]

Mr. Vichea Suon

Director

Trade Training and ResearchInstitute (TTRI),Ministry of Commerce ofCambodia

No.65, 67, 69, Street 136 SangkatPhsar Kandal, Khan Daun Penh,Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Tel: +855 12 880 384+855 15 804 111

E-mail: [email protected]@gmail.com

Ms. Nguyen Thi PhuongNGA

Deputy Director

ASEAN DivisionAsia - Pacific Market DepartmentMinistry of Industry and Trade

54 Hai Ba Trung Street, Hoan KiemDistrict, Ha Noi, Vietnam

Tel: +84 4 2220 5430E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Vitat Vajropala

Director

Bureau of Trade CapacityEnhancement,Department of Trade Negotiations,Ministry of Commerce

44 / 100, Nonthaburi 1, AmphoeMuang, Nonthaburi, 11000,Thailand

Tel: +66 2 507 7617+66 92 435 9090


Mr. Aung Kyi Soe

Joint Secretary General

Union of Myanmar Federation ofChambers of Commerce andIndustry (UMFCCI)

29, Min Ye Kyaw Swar Street,Lanmadaw Township, Yangon,Myanmar




Ms. Kanya S.Sasradipoera

Senior Trade SpecialistSoutheast AsiaDepartment

Asian Development Bank (ADB)Thailand Resident Mission

23rd Floor, Central World, 999 / 9Rama 1 Road, Wangmai,Phathumwan, Bangkok, 10330,Thailand

Tel: +66 2 263 5300Fax: +66 2 2635301 to 2E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Madhurjya KumarDutta

Director

Trade & Investment Facilitation (TIF)Department,Mekong Institute

123, Muang District, Khon KaenProvince, 40002, Thailand

Tel: +66 (0) 43 202 411-2 (Ext.4061)Fax: +66 (0) 43 343 131Email: [email protected]

Dr. Jean Pierre A.Verbiest

Honorary Advisor to MICouncil

Ruam Rudee Penthouse, 30/7 SoiRuam Rudee, Lumpini, Pathumwan,Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Tel: +66 81 7542 399Email: [email protected]

Mr. Bhaskar J. Mahanta

Joint Secretary

Ministry of Heavy Industries & PublicEnterprises, Government of India

183, Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi,India

Tel: +91 2306 3733E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Paul Martin

Regional TechnicalAdvisor

United Nations CapitalDevelopment Fund (UNCDF)

3rd Floor, Service Building,Rajdamnern Nok Avenue, PraNakorn, 10200, Thailand

Tel: +66 2 288 18 29E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Shri G. SampathKumar

General Manager

Small Industries DevelopmentBank of India (SIDBI) HyderabadRegional Office

101, Hermitage Office Complex,1st Floor, Saifabad,Hyderabad – 500004, India


Mr. Daisuke Matsushima

Professor

Nagasaki University

1-14 Bunkyo-Machi, Nagasaki City,Nagasaki Prefecture, 852-8521,Japan



Delegates from CMTV countries (10)

NAME ORGANIZATION & ADDRESS CONTACTSCAMBODIA (3)Mr. Bunna Yea

Deputy DirectorGeneral

General Department of SMEs andHandicraft, Ministry of Industry andHandicraft

45 PreahNorodom, Boulevard,SangkatPhsarThmey III, Khan Daun Penh,Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Tel: +855 12 814 150E-mail:[email protected]

Mr. Chantha Kin

Advisor

Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training

#3 Russian Confederation Blvd., SangkatToekLaak 1, Khan ToulKok, Phnom Penh,Cambodia.


MYANMAR (2)Mr. Nay San

Deputy Director

Research Development & TechnologyExtension Department, Department ofTrade Promotion,Ministry of Commerce

No (54) building, Room No (24), KhayaeHousing, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.


Mr. Soe Moe Kyaw

Deputy DirectorGeneral

Directorate of Industrial Supervision andInspection, Ministry of Industry

Office No (30), Zeya Htani Road, Nay PyiTaw, Union of Myanmar.


THAILAND (3)Mr. Apisit Cholsakorn

Director

Board of Trade Thailand

150, Rajbopit Road, Pranakhon District,Bangkok 10200, Thailand


Mr. AthiwatPattanachaipuvanon

Member

Border Trade Committee, the Federationof Thai Industries (FTI)

Queen Sirikit National Convention Center,Zone C 4th Floor, 60 New RachadapisekRd., Klongtoey, Bangkok, 10110, Thailand.


Mr. ChotiwuttiInnadda

Division Director

Service Standards and Networks Division,Bureau of Industrial ManagementDevelopment,Department of Industrial Promotion,Ministry of Industry of Thailand.

Rama VI Road, Rachathevi, Bangkok,Thailand.


VIETNAM (2)Mr. Ta Duc Minh

Director

Sub-region Cooperation Division, Asia-Pacific Market Department, Ministry ofIndustry and Trade

54 Hai Ba Trung Street, HoanKiem District,Ha Noi, Vietnam




Participants from 19 Provinces along SEC (53)

Mr. Nguyen DuongKien

Officer

Southeast Asia Division, Asia-PacificMarket Department, Ministry of Industryand Trade

54 Hai Ba Trung Street, HoanKiem District,Ha Noi, Vietnam

E-mail:[email protected]

NAME ORGANIZATION & ADDRESS CONTACTSCAMBODIA

Banteay Meanchey (2)Ms. Morn Saroeuth

General Manager

Khmer Golden Silk

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Mobile: +855 17 44 0925Email: [email protected]

Mr. Seng Sereivath

Deputy Officer

Trade Development

Provincial Department ofCommerce, BanteayMeanchey, Cambodia


Battambang (3)Mr. Suon Sunlee

Own department ofFish Sauce

Ponle Preah Artit Fish SauceProduction

Ronelek A.V. Ralanack City,Battambang Province,Cambodia

Mobile: +855 021 363 185

Mr. Tim BomrongDeputy Chief of IndustryOffice

Battambang Department ofIndustry and Handicraft

Ministry of Industry andHandicraftRoad No.1 Svaypor Commune,Battambang District,Battambang Province,Cambodia

Mobile: +855 092 325773

Ms. Ho Dany

Vice President

Battambang Department ofIndustry and Handicraft

Road No.1 Svaypor Commune,Battambang District,Battambang Province,Cambodia


Pursat (3)Mr. Bun Saoratt

Chief Officer

Trade Management Office,Pursat Department ofCommerce

Peal NhekII VillageSangakPhteah Prey, Pursat city,Prusat Province, Cambodia

Mobile: +855 011 698 666Tel: +855 016 41 0055Email: [email protected]

Mr. KhunSopheap

Secretary

Pursat Orange Association

Angkrong Village, SamrongCoon, PhnamKravanh District,Pursat Province, Cambodia

Mobile: +855 071 945 5557Tel: +855 092 558 384Email: [email protected]


Mr. ChheVansoda

Director

Pursat Department of Industryand Handicraft

Pursat, Cambodia


Kampong Chhnang (3)Mr. Sar Piseth

Chief Office

Kampong Chhnang Departmentof Industry and Handicraft

Kampong Chhnang Province,Cambodia


Ms. Yong Sokha

President Center

Center of Development Ceramic

Kampong Chhnang Province,Cambodia

Mobile: +855 077 486 108

Mr. Tith Nan

Director

Kampong Chhnang Departmentof Industry and Handicraft

Lor Toektrey Village, Sangkat,Kampong Chhnang, KampongChhnang City, KampongChhnang Province, Cambodia


Svay Rieng (3)Mr. Samrit Chheung

President

Smach Paddy Association

Kampong Ro District, Svay RiengProvince, Cambodia

Mobile: +855 097 903 1301

Mr. Chea Sopheara

Finance and AdmOfficial

Svay Rieng Department ofCommerce

Rong Ban Le Village,SvayRiengTowm, Cambodia


Mr. Long Sokhom

Director

Svay Rieng Department ofIndustry and Handicraft

Street 1, Phum Mephleung,Sangkat, Svay Rieng, Svay RiengCity, Svay Rieng Province,Cambodia

Tel: +855 12786009E-mail: [email protected]

Koh Kong (3)Mr. Hor Sinourn

Staff

Koh Kong Department ofIndustry and Handicraft

Koh Kong Province, Cambodia


Mr. Cheu Li Heang Cheu Li Heang Import andExport Company


Mr. Khloem Koky

Director

Koh Kong Department ofIndustry and Handicraft

Koh Kong Province, Cambodia


Preah Sihanouk (3)Mr. Chin Samnan

President

Dried Shrimp ProcessingAssociation

Sihanouk Ville, Cambodia

Mobile: +855 012 866 376/ 097 99888 10Email: [email protected]



Mr. Phron Rattanak

Chief Officer

Preah Sihanouk Department ofIndustry and Handicraft

Village 1, Songkat 1,Preahsihanouk City, Cambodia

Tel: +855 093/017 288 555Email: [email protected]

Mr. Vann Sok Heng

President

Federation of Associations forSmall and Medium Enterprises ofCambodia (SihanoukvilleBranch)

Sangkat 2, Sihanoukville,Cambodia

Tel: +855 11340076E-mail: [email protected]

Kampot (3)Mr. Bun Chandara

Assistant Manager

Office of Salt ProducerCompany,Sail Producer Community ofKampot & KEP

One Usakphea KampongKamdal, Kampong Bay, Kampot,Cambodia


Mr. Koeng Sonthean

Head OfficerOffice Ambel

Kampot Department of Industryand Handicraft

Khanng Cherng Village, SangkatAunding Khmer, Kampot City,Kampot Province, Cambodia

Tel: +855 12 93 8351

Mr. Chhon Chhang

Vice President

Chamber of Commerce Kampot

Takeo and Kep, Kep Village, KepCommune, Kep City, KepProvince, Cambodia


MYANMAR

Tanintaryi Region /Dawei (3)Mr. Zaw Myo Aung

Deputy Director

Department of SMEsDevelopment TanintharyiRegion, Directorate of IndustrialSupervision and Inspection (DISI),Ministry of Industry Myanmar

WaiKyun Nyaungyan Block,Eithinar Yone Road, Dawei,Tanintharyi, Myanmar

Tel: +95 59 21146Mob: +95 9 533 0257


Mr. Zaw Thura

Executive Member

Tanintharyi / Dawei DistrictFishery Federation

No(486) Seikkanthar Road,Talinehtain Quarter, Dawei,Tanintaryi, Myanmar


Mr. Bo BoAung

Member

Dawei Small Scale FisheryFederation

Tanintharyi, Myanmar

Mobile: +95 9420 0200 18E-mail: [email protected]

THAILAND

Ratchaburi (2)Ms. WantamatTantrarak

Organic Fruit Product RatchaburiThailand

Mobile: +66 83 – 160 4265Email:


Gardener 11 Moo 10, Bangpae, Ratchaburi70160

[email protected]: www.fruitratchaburi.com

Ms. Janejirathammaraksakul

Document Control (DC)

Group of Export Organic FruitProduct

11 Moo 10, Bangpae, Ratchaburi70160

Mobile: 080-055 [email protected]: www.fruitratchaburi.com

Prachinburi (2)Dr. SompornViriyanupappong

Director

Office of Commercial AffairsPrachinburi

Road Suwinthawong, District MaiKhet, AmphoeMueang,Prachinburi, 25230, Thailand.

Tel: +66 37 45 4062Mob: +66 81 7831 300E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. SivapochKuvichitsuwan

Owner

Nakham Organic RiceCommunity Enerprise

71/1 Moo 3, Nakham Kabinburi,Prachinburi, Thailand 25110

Mobile: 098-494 0498, 081-861 3245Tel: 037 283 856Fax: 037 283 856Email:[email protected]

Sa – Kaeo (3)Ms. Aoytip Jumjod Aromatic Herb Coorperative

Sakaeo

543, Suwannasorn Rd., BaanNong Nok Kao, Tha Ka-sem Sub-District, Muang District, Sa-KaeoProvince


Ms. PreedaPadungcharoen

Teacher

6/12 Thesabaan 14, Sakeao Sub-District, Muang District, Sa-Kaeo


Ms. Saaritha Nonpayom Sa-Kaeo Provincial IndustryOffice

Tel: +66 3742 5053+66 3742 5056

E-mail: [email protected] (4)Mr. Surasak Janchum

Head, Division of Policyand Planning

Chanthaburi Provincial IndustryOffice

200 Tha Luang Rd., Wat Mai Sub-distric, Muang, Chantaburi22000, Thailand


Mrs. Sasithorn Vises Chanthaburi ProvincialCooperative Office


Mr. Suparb Kerdboon

Cooperative TechnicalOfficer, ServicesTechnical Specialist

Chanthaburi ProvincialCooperative Office

Tel: 086-300 1525Email: [email protected]

Mrs. Phitchaya Ponmak

Manager

Makam Agricultural cooperative229/2 Village No. 1, Makam Sub-District, Makam District,Chanthaburi 22150

Tel: +66 39 389 095Fax: +66 39 389 363Email: [email protected]

Trat (3)Mr. Amornrit Phulsawat

Secretary

Trat Chamber of Commerce

Community hall of Trat (Upstairs)

Tel: +66 3 952 0430+66 3952 1275E-mail: [email protected]



besides The city Hall, RadniyomRoad, Muang, Trat, 23000,Thailand.

Mr. NijtawatPakdeepasit

Government Officer

Trat Office of Commercial AffairMinistry of Commerce

322/1 Moo. 8, Mueng District, TratProvince, Thailand

Mobile: +66 86-3311869Tel: +66 39-511283Fax: +66 39-520023Email: [email protected]

Ms. Phlapphlung

Manager

Trat Tourism Council of Thailand

29 kohchang Sub-district,Kohchang District, Trat Province23170

Mobile: +66 81-7772124Email: [email protected]

Others (5)Mr. Kevin Billing

InternationalDevelopment Specialist


Ms. Kulrisa Sayavee

Associate ProgramManagement andOperations Officer forLocal DevelopmentFinance Practice Asia

United Nations CapitalDevelopment Fund (UNCDF)Regional Office for Asia

3rd Floor, Service BuildingRajdamnernNok Avenue,PraNakorn, 10200, Thailand.


Mr. Noritada Morita

Member of the Board ofTrustees

Asian Institute of Technology

Km 42 Paholyothin HighwayKlongLuang, Pathumthani,12120, Thailand.

Mobile: +66 80 068 0010Email: [email protected]: http://www.ait.com

Ms. SaruntornKaewveangchai

News Anchor/ Reporter

Thai Public Broadcasting Service(Thai PBS)

145 ViphavadiRangsit Rd.,TalatBangkhen, Laksi, Bangkok10210 Thailand.

Mobile: +66 84 655 9841Tel: +66 2 790 2592


Mr. Surachet Tipmalee

Cameraman

Thai Public Broadcasting Service(Thai PBS)

145 ViphavadiRangsit Rd.,TalatBangkhen, Laksi, Bangkok10210 Thailand.

VIETNAM

TayNinh (1)Mr. Le khanh Trinh

ChiefTrade Promotion

Tayninh Trade Promotion Center

304 Cach Mang Thang TamStreet, Ward 2, Tayninh City,Tayninh Province, Vietnam

Tel: +84 91388 4035Tel: +84 08466 381 3794E-mail: [email protected]

KienGiang (2)Mr. Ngo Quang Binh

Head

Fx-Import Managing Division,Kien Giang Department ofIndustry and Trade840 Nguyen Tring Truc Street,Rach Gia City, Kien GiangProvince, Vietnam


Mr. Tran ThanhKiet

Head

Trade Promotion and SME Sup.DivisionKienGiang Trade-Inv-Tourism ProCen.222-224 Tran Phu Street,

Mobile: +84 919 312 927Email:[email protected]


Organizing team (7)

Trade and Investment Facilitation Department, Mekong Institute

RachGia City, KienGiangProvince, Vietnam

Ca Mau (3)Mr. Nguyen Viet Trung

Head

Trade Management Division,Ca Mau Department of Industryand Trade

290, Tran Hung Dao Street, CaMau City, Ca Mau Province,Vietnam

Tel: +84 918 070 448+84 780 3832 211

Fax: +84 780 3830 211Email:[email protected]

Mr. Nguyen Le Thai

Secretary General

Ca Mau Business Association

99 Phar Ngoe Hien Street, Ward5, Ca Mau City, Vietnem

Email: [email protected]

Nguyen Van Do

Director

Ca Mau Department of Industryand Trade

290 Tran Hung Dao Street, CaMau City, Ca Mau Province,Vietnam


Can Tho (2)Ms. Vo Thi Kim Cuong

ManagerLegal

VCCI Can Tho12 Hoa Binh Street, Can Tho City,Vietnam

Tel: +84 07103 824 918+84 0909 351 055

Fax: +84 07103 819 345Email: [email protected]

Mr. Vo Hung Dung

Director

Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (VCCI)– Can Tho Branch

No.12, Hoa Binh Avenue, Can-Tho City, Vietnam


PHOTO NAME CONTACTMr. Madhurjya Kumar Dutta

DirectorTrade & InvestmentFacilitation (TIF)

Tel: +66 (0) 43 202 411-2 Ext. 4061Fax: +66 (0) 43 343 131Mobile: +66 (0) 8 74927118Email: [email protected]

Mr. QuanAnh Nguyen

Program SpecialistTIF

Tel: +66 (0) 43 202 411-2 Ext. 4071Fax: +66 (0) 43 343 131Mobile: +66 (0) 8 7582628Email: [email protected]

Mr. Sa-nga Sattanun

Program ManagerTIF

Tel: +66 (0) 43 202 411-2 Ext. 4081Fax: +66 (0) 43 343 131Mobile: +66 (0) 0 87858 2628Email:[email protected]



Mr. Toru Hisada

Senior Project CoordinatorTIF

Tel: +66 043 202 411-2 ext. 4097Fax: +66 043 343 131Mob: +66 89 011 8672Email: [email protected]

Mr. Sopheak Seang

Project CoordinatorTIF

Tel: +66 (0) 4320 2411-2 ext.4093Fax: +66 (0) 43 343 131Mobile: +66 (0) 82 053 5534Email: [email protected]

Ms. Wen Hao

Program CoordinatorTIF

Tel: +66 (0) 4320 2411-2 ext.4092Fax: +66 (0) 43 343 131Mobile: +66 (0) 874232983Email: [email protected]

Ms. Sasiporn Phuphaploy

Program Assistant,TIF

Tel: +66 (0) 4320 2411-2 Ext. 4095Fax: +66 (0) 43 343 131Mobile: +66 (0) 88 3044427Email: [email protected]

Regional Seminar on - Mekong Institute...APSC Political-Security Community ASCC ASEAN Socio-Cultural...

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