CARI Briefings on Progress, priorities and challenges of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)

CIMB ASEAN Research Institute in collaboration with ASEAN Business Club held a CARI Briefings on 8th January 2019 titled Leveraging ASEAN solutions for trade through ASSIST: The EU’s support under the ARISE Plus Programme by Paolo R. Vergano.

SPEAKER

Paolo R. Vergano

Trade Facilitation Expert, ARISE Plus Project of ASEAN Regional Integration Support by the EU

Paolo R. Vergano is a founding partner at FratiniVergano – European Lawyers in Brussels, Belgium and Singapore (www.fratinivergano.eu) and key expert for trade facilitation in the ARISE Plus project of ASEAN Regional Integration Support by the EU. His practice focuses on international trade law (i.e., WTO, EU and ASEAN law, market access, trade facilitation, dispute settlement and trade negotiation in the areas of agriculture, services and non-tariff measures, such as sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade). He has been advising the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Member States and businesses operating in ASEAN on issues of international trade law and regional economic integration since 2007. Most recently, he has been involved in the establishment and operationalization of the ASEAN Trade Repository (ATR) and of the system of ASEAN Solutions to Services, Investment and Trade (ASSIST), two important trade facilitation instruments, developed with support by the European Union through the ARISE and ARISE Plus programmes, that aim at enabling the private sector to achieve increased regulatory transparency and address trade irritants within ASEAN, particularly with respect to Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) and Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs). Mr. Vergano is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the University of Torino, Italy (1995), received a Diplôme Supérieur de Droit Comparé at the Faculté Internationale de Droit Comparé in Strasbourg, France (1996) and holds a Master’s degree in International Business and Trade Law from the University of Fordham School of Law in New York, United States (1997). He teaches at the World Trade Institute in Bern, Switzerland since 2002, as well as at UPH in Jakarta and LUISS University in Rome. He is a frequent lecturer in universities around the world and author on issues of WTO, EU and ASEAN law.

CHAIR

Tan Sri Dr. Munir Majid

Chairman, CIMB ASEAN Research InstitutePresident, ASEAN Business Club

Tan Sri Dr. Munir is currently Chairman of CIMB ASEAN Research Institute, of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad, of the Financial Services Professional Board, of ASEAN Business Advisory Council, Malaysia, as well as President of the ASEAN Business Club. He also sits on the board of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia and on the Financial Services Talent Council of Bank Negara Malaysia.

He has an extensive experience and is well known in the Malaysian corporate world. He had been the Group Editor of the New Straits Times, first executive chairman of CIMB and founding chairman of the Malaysian Securities Commission. After stepping down from the Securities Commission, he became Independent Non-Executive Director of Telekom Malaysia Berhad, Chairman of Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad and Non-Executive Chairman of Malaysian Airline System Berhad. He was Founder President of the Kuala Lumpur Business Club, established in 2003 and is a member of the Court of Fellows of the Malaysian Institute of Management.

Tan Sri Dr. Munir obtained a B.Sc (Econ) and Ph.D in International Relations from the London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE) in 1971 and 1978. He is an Honorary Fellow of LSE and continues the long association with his alma mater as Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre of International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy. Tan Sri Dr. Munir is an associate of Southeast Asia Centre (SEAC) at LSE.

CARI Briefing