《雅加达邮报》2015年10月19日讯 印尼政府相信印尼已经做好准备加入东盟经济共同体，并在接下来的一年里启动，尽管印尼政府担心这将影响其本国的竞争力。

The government believes Indonesia is ready to enter the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which will kick off at the turn of the year, despite ongoing concerns about competitiveness.

Indonesian Ambassador to Thailand Lutfi Rauf said on Thursday that according to the AEC Plan of Action scorecard, the country’s readiness stood at 94 percent, higher than the ASEAN average of 92 percent.

“Various sectors in Indonesia have been made aware of and are ready for the AEC,” he said after a discussion at the ASEAN Business Forum 2015 organized by the Thailand Management Association (TMA) and the Thailand Board of Trade, in Bangkok.

The AEC scorecard is a monitoring mechanism established by ASEAN to ensure a timely implementation of the AEC initiatives. The scorecard reports progress in implementing various AEC measures and identifies gaps and challenges faced by the member countries.

Lutfi expressed optimism that Southeast Asia’s largest economy had a lot of potential, given its developed human resources, the strategic geographical location between two oceans, which makes the country an international hub, and a relatively stable political situation.

He said that Thailand’s top three investment destinations were Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam. However, as it was considered to have a more stable political environment, Indonesia remained top of the list.

“Our biggest challenge is being an archipelagic country,” he said, adding that connecting tens of thousands of islands was more difficult than linking places on a continent.

He applauded President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s policy to build 24 ports across the archipelago as an effort to better interconnect the country and increase efficiency in transportation, thus improving Indonesia’s competitiveness among its peers.

“The [ASEAN] countries share the concern that the AEC is not only an opportunity, but also a threat,” he told The Jakarta Post, adding that to bolster their economies, ASEAN continental countries were currently building the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) corridor to connect Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and several southern cities of China via roads and railways. Supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ongoing program started in 2008.

Lutfi said that the countries were bracing themselves for competition, as evidenced by the government and private sectors in Thailand running Indonesian language courses. They understood that mastering the language they would increase their chances of penetrating the large Indonesian market, he said.

Meanwhile, the Manpower Ministry has announced plans to reinstate Indonesian language tests for foreigners working in Indonesia by the end of this month, a policy aimed to ease the transfer of skills and technologies. The test will be compulsory for foreigners looking to extend their work permits after a period of one year.

Lutfi said that it was the time for Indonesia’s young generation to learn other ASEAN countries’ languages, too, as an added value in entering the AEC.

Despite competing with one another, ASEAN countries have committed themselves to strengthening the community and developing connectivity across the region.

Malaysian Ambassador to Thailand Dato’ Nazirah Hussain said that connections should be built between places, people and policies of ASEAN.

Thailand’s Foreign Affairs Ministry’s deputy directorate general for ASEAN affairs, Suriya Chindawongse, shared the same thought, adding that the key concept was to prioritize the interests of the people.

“We must create a community where nobody feels left behind,” he said. - See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/19/indonesia-gears-aec-opportunities-competition.html#sthash.KTyIwDoR.dpuf