SPECIAL REPORT: Vital missing link to PH global future

Last of two parts

If everything goes according to plan, the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will complete the long-planned integration of their trade sometime in 2015, reducing tariffs on many goods and presumably increasing the flow of intra-regional commerce. That potential increase in trade is reflected significantly in growth projections for Philippine ports, and has added urgency to efforts to solve the current congestion at the Port of Manila.