“With ASEAN integration, if you are not strong enough, you will die.” This was the clear-cut message of Japanese Economist Norio Usui to stakeholders at the NCC Dialogues entitled Getting Ready for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 last June 26.

Similar to other discussions on the AEC, the event attracted a diverse set of personalities from government, local business organizations, foreign business chambers, small and medium enterprises, development institutions, and media.

Unlike other fora that focused on what the AEC is about, the NCC Dialogues focused on how the Philippines can get ready for 2015 when there will be “free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labor, and freer flow of capital” in Southeast Asia.

Given that ASEAN members have already complied with most AEC commitments, Dr. Cielito Habito of the USAID TRADE Project allayed fears of drastic changes arising in 2015. However, he echoed Usui’s statement that there are opportunities and challenges to integration. Habito advised SMEs to embrace clustering and “coopetition” and strengthen their overall financial and business management. He also emphasized the role of larger enterprises in making inclusive growth a reality by shifting their business models to more inclusive value chains while strategically positioning themselves in cross-border production networks.

In agreement, Usui said that the Philippines has the potential to be the key production base in Asia but added that it has to move to higher value segments, especially in manufacturing, to create “more jobs”, “a variety of jobs”, and “productive jobs”. While he stressed the importance of dialogue between government and the private sector to address long-standing issues like infrastructure, he also reminded business owners to focus on their products and think about what it is they can do to fix them and improve efficiency in production.

Click here to download the presentations and learn more about how to get ready for the AEC.