Economic ministers of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began here Friday their 36th annual gathering to seek ways to accelerate economic integration in the region and to boost intra-regional trade.

The ministers are expected to focus on the 11 priority sectors for the economic integration. The sectors include automotive, textile, electronics, information technology, health services, rubber-based products, wood-based products, tourism, agriculture, fisheries and aviation,

The sectors are where ASEAN members hold comparative advantage and competitiveness.

The three-day meeting is also expected to come out with an effective dispute settlement mechanism and harmonization and standardization of trade facilities and investment procedures.

The meeting also gives an opportunity for the ASEAN ministers to hold talks with their counterparts of the grouping main partners, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the European Union.

Founded in 1967, ASEAN is moving to a single market of the region's 520 million people with a single production basis, characterized by a freer trade flow of goods and services, and freer flow of investment and labor in the region by 2020.

Source: Xinhua