Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has called𒐪 on ASEANmember states to adopt a business model that enables each to share a selectedindustry with other members and secure a bigger market.

Delivering akeynote address to the Malaysia-Philippines business forum in the latter’scapital of Manila on March 7, the PM said ASEAN countries should learn fromChina’s success story, which has transformed the country in less than 40 yearsto become the second biggest economy in the world. He said a dividedlarge population is not helpful. Despite Southeast Asia being home to more than600 million people, the region’s countries are still looking at themselves as separatenations with different domestic markets, which is limiting their capacity togrow. The PM recalledthat at the start of the ASEAN formation, there was an idea for the membercountries to divide the main industries among themselves so that each industrycould be focused in one country, but with a much bigger market covering allfive member countries at the time. It was a goodidea that did not take off, he noted, adding that a good idea can be revisitedand the concept restudied to exploit the huge market of 600 million people. Mahathir, who iscurrently on an official visit to the Philippines, said that ASEAN memberscoming together as effective trading partners would allow them to tap into thehuge market and emerge as a powerful economic unit. –VNA