TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Canada-ASEAN Business Council (CABC) hosted the 3rd Canada-ASEAN Business Forum on September 7-8, in Jakarta. With the theme “Partnering Growth for ASEAN”, 260 delegations from private companies and the government explored opportunities to strengthen trade between the Northern American country and all 10 ASEAN member states.

“(The event) really goes a long way toward increasing the understanding toward the potential of our relationship,” said Marie-Louise Hannan, the Canadian Ambassador to ASEAN.

Wayne Farmer, the CABC president, said that there is a huge potential for Canadian companies to do business in Southeast Asian region. “With a Canada-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in the works, there is no better time to focus on the business partnership development,” he said.

Based on the result of the 2nd Canada-ASEAN Business Outlook, a survey conducted this year, it shows an increasing optimism among Canadian businesses to invest in ASEAN countries. A total of 94 percent of the respondents felt that they had a positive opportunity in the region.

Nevertheless, participants of the forum expressed their concern of the challenges that they might face in conducting business in ASEAN, including inconsistent enforcement of laws and corruption.

Teuku Faizasyah, the Indonesian Ambassador to Canada, who participated in the event emphasized that over the past 10 years, Indonesia have conducted campaign against corruption. “The establishment of the KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) symbolizes our commitment to deal with this issue seriously,” he said.

ASEAN is currently Canada’s 6th largest trading partner. The value of Canada-ASEAN trade reached $21.4 billion last year. The region had a collective GDP estimated at over $3.1 trillion in 2015.

AMANDA SIDDHARTA