Six Southeast Asian nations signed three trade agreements here on Tuesday, paving the way towards a single market, despite the postponement of a regional summit.

The economic ministers of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore and Malaysia signed three agreements including trade in goods, investment and services at a signing ceremony.

Then Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, also the chairman of the meeting, handed the deals to Secretary- General of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) Surin Pitsuwan.

The three agreements were originally to be signed at the annual ASEAN summit in Thailand this month, but the summit was postponed by the Thai government to late February next year due to recent unrest in the country.

"The economic ministers felt that we should proceed to sign the trade deals without delay," Lim told reporters after the signing ceremony, adding, "we felt we should have a meeting, sign and press on because if you postpone everything till end February we lose two months."

Lim also said the deals signed on Tuesday will make the region more attractive to domestic investments and foreign investments, especial during the global economic crisis.

With the world in a credit crunch, foreign investment will fall over the next few years, he said, adding, "if ASEAN cannot portray itself as a more attractive venue I think then we'll lose out."

The three deals were improvement and update over the previous trade agreements on goods, investments and services within ASEAN as part of the 10-member bloc's blueprint to forge a single market and product base by 2015, said officials.

The new ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement comprises both tariff and non-tariff elements, updating over the current ASEAN free trade area tariff scheme which was just focused on tariffs, according to officials.

The ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement is an expanding deal that will benefit both 10 member nations' investors and ASEAN- based foreign investors, while the third deal - the seventh package of the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services - makes more commitments in priority integration sectors such as air travel, healthcare and tourism.

Since implementation of schedules for tariff reduction for trade in goods in the region, the average tariff rate of six ASEAN nations has been reduced from 12.8 percent in 1993 to 0.97 percent in 2008, according to statistics.

The other four ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar, were expected to sign the three deals later, according to officials.

(China Daily December 16, 2008)