Manila, May 15:

Southeast Asian trade ministers began a meeting on Monday to brainstorm ways to speed up economic integration and turn the region into a single market by 2015, five years earlier than planned.

Ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, will explore the possibility of pushing forward the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC, during their two-day retreat. Originally, members proposed it be completed by 2020.

Under the proposal, the AEC will allow the free flow of goods, services and people across the region that will boost trade and investment. The plans do not call for a single currency.

The ministers will assess progress of ASEAN’s various free trade negotiations and are to meet South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson on Tuesday.

“The ministers will be addressing many of the issues that led to the perception that we are not moving in terms of economic integration,” ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong told reporters.

“The idea is to see how we can operationalize many of the initiatives and schemes for economic integration. There is not enough momentum.” The proposal to accelerate the formation of the AEC was made by the bloc’s leaders at their summit in December.

ASEAN nations have already lowered tariffs for most products among themselves under a regional free trade pact, but the pace of liberalization in services trade remains sluggish, and a number of non-tariff barriers are hindering growth in the region, which has a market of 530 million people but accounts for only 6 percent of global exports.

Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila said they would evaluate recommendations from the ASEAN Secretariat to strengthen institutional arrangements and to shift from ASEAN’s policy of making decisions based on consensus to achieve the AEC.

They will also evaluate proposals for “strong doses of liberalization and trade facilitation” for 11 priority sectors in goods and services, he said, without elaborating. Ministers from Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam could not attend the meeting due to other committments, officials said. The three countries are represented by senior officials.

The other members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Singapore.

The meeting was originally scheduled to be held on the resort island of Boracay, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) southeast of Manila, but bad weather caused by tropical storm Chanchu, which has left at least 37 people dead, forced officials to shift the meeting to the Philippine capital.