Officials of theAssociation of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Hong Kong ( China )have agreed that an ASEAN-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement (AHKFTA)could yield mutual benefits, the ASEAN Secretariat said on April 2.
Preparations for the proposed AHKFTA negotiationsare now underway, after the endorsement by the ASEAN Economic Ministersat the 19th AEM Retreat in March 2013 in Vietnam .
According to the Secretariat, the two sides shared the view during avisit to Hong Kong last week by ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minhat the invitation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative RegionGovernment.
During his visit, the Secretary-Generalmet with high level officials who emphasised ASEAN’s importance toHong Kong both as a rapidly growing economic region and as anorganisation. With ASEAN now as Hong Kong’s second biggest tradingpartner after mainland China , there is much interest to pursuebroader and deeper economic cooperation with ASEAN.
Secretary-General Minh also gave a keynote address on the ASEANEconomic Community (AEC) at the Credit Suisse Asia Investment Conference(AIC), in which he shared ASEAN’s accomplishments in terms of theregional economic integration and community building agenda, as well asthe remaining challenges in establishing the AEC by 2015.-VNA