Asean states 'too disparate to come together for common market'

Singapore

ASEAN was on Thursday described as not being ready for the single market it hopes to set up among its 10 members by year's end.

Timothy Ong Teck Mong, chairman of the Asia Inc Forum, a regional network of political and business leaders, said the countries in Asean are too economically disparate to come together as the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

And there is another gulf - the one that is the "cultural difference" between government officials and business people, he said.

Speaking at a panel discussion attended by about 250 people at the third Asean Business Club (ABC) forum, he added that this government-business gulf was just "the tip of …