Lining up despite the rivalry
Southeast Asia ports are trying to find answers to help the cargo flow, and at time of writing, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was about to try to meld its 10 nations together into a body a little like the European Union, although the differences between them are arguably much larger.
There’s no doubt that the ports themselves would benefit from more cohesive trade. The area has made a start: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have already removed customs duties on all products originating within the area and intra-ASEAN cargo is scheduled to be completely free of duties by 2020.
However, the region is riven with crosscurrents, especially since both China and America have their interests to protect.
China-aligned North Korea’s planned rocket launches worry its neighbours in South Korea, which look to the US for support, but it gets even more complicated over issues around the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all say they have a stake but it’s complicated by China’s insistence that the sea is entirely their territory and it has been increasingly troubled by the Philippines and Vietnam’s energy exploration and claims to fishing rights.
On the other hand, the elections in Myanmar have now started to warm the picture a little and made port developments easier to gain financing for.
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