Singapore, Nov 11: China's emergence as a global power and rising Islamic extremism are the twin challenges facing Southeast Asia's future as a regional bloc, Singapore Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo said today.
"Global terrorism is one major challenge uniting us in ASEAN," Yeo said in a luncheon speech organised by the American Chamber of Commerce here.
"The other major challenge is the rise of China," he said, pointing out the Chinese economy is attracting 40-50 billion US dollars worth of investments yearly while inflows into Southeast Asia "have been languishing".
"This is forcing us to take a hard look at our own competitiveness," Yeo told the gathering.

The 10-member association of Southeast Asian nations has no alternative but to speed up efforts in forging closer intra-regional trade ties or it would be unable to compete against China, Yeo said.



"As we do not wish to be in a tributary relationship to China, Asean's most sensible strategy is to move closer to Japan, the US, India, Europe and Australia, even as we move closer to China," he said.



"Asean countries now have no choice but to work towards closer regional economic integration," Yeo said.


"Without the free movement of goods, services and investments in Southeast Asia, we will lose out to China in many sectors because China is by itself a free trade area of 1.2 billion people," he said.



Bureau Report