Senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aim to endorse after their meetings this week all the priority economic deliverables under the Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA).

Marie Sherylyn Aquia, Director of the Department of Trade and Industry-Bureau of International Trade Relations (BITR), said DEFA negotiations include cleansing the agreement of any legal issues.

“They (the experts) will review agreed provisions to ensure clarity, consistency, and readiness of the text before it is signed in November at the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit,” Aquia said in a briefing at the International Media Center in a hotel in Taguig City on Tuesday.

“Hopefully, by the end of the first half of the year, malinis na yung text, legally scrubbed na sya (the text has been finalized and legally scrubbed), and then it will go into domestic process of the different ASEAN (countries),” she told journalists in a media interview.

Aquia declined to give specifics but said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is leading the discussions this year, in line with the Philippines’ chairship of this year’s Summit.

She said ensuring economic integration in the 11-country regional bloc is needed now more than ever given the developments overseas, such as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

“In times like these, ASEAN’s strength lies in working together, to keep markets open, strengthen our trade partnerships, diversify economic links, and reinforce the resilience of our regional supply chains. At the same time, ASEAN must continue to seize new opportunities for growth,” she added.

Aquia underscored the importance of the digital economy, noting estimates that the region’s digital economy may hit up to USD2 trillion by 2030.

“Ensuring that our region can fully harness this opportunity, and that our people are not left behind in the digital era, is, therefore, a shared priority for ASEAN,” she said. (PNA)