He made the statement on July 19 in Hanoi on the sideline of a discussion themed “ASEAN’s 50 years: ASEAN Economic Community and opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises”.

He said the ASEAN has been a regional grouping with the largest number of free trade agreements. It is finalizing a new free trade deal with Hong Kong this year and also working towards another deal with Canada. 

“ASEAN has removed tariff lines within the community except for several transactions with new members including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar until 2018. 100 areas of service have been liberalized. The ASEAN Vision 2025 pursues an open region policy for more opportunities in regional and global economic integration and business cooperation," Luong added.