International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said Asean would accelerate the integration of four services sectors, namely travel, tourism, healthcare and e-Asian, by 2010.

"The other services sectors, including professional services, are targeted for liberalisation by 2020 although consideration is being given to advance the timeline to 2015 with flexibility for sensitive sectors," she said before opening the CPA Australia 9th Asian Regional Conference here Friday.

Rafidah said Asean also recognised that the services sector accounted for over 40 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of its member countries and could be developed into a new engine of growth for the regional economy.

"Therefore, there is now greater political will to move faster the pace of liberalisation," she added.

As a parallel track, the minister said the 10-nation grouping was also in the process of negotiating mutual recognition arrangements which currently focused on engineering, accountancy, architecture, surveying and nursing services.

"Developments in the region would certainly continue to provide new opportunities for businesses, including those in the professional services sector," she said.

What was important was for the services providers themselves to be fully apprised of the new developments and the opportunities and strategies to benefit from them, she added.

"Currently, the process of globalisation dictates that the services sector be progressively liberalised, in tandem with liberalisation of markets in goods, with increasing trend towards cross-border business ventures," Rafidah said.

She said other initiatives such as subscribing to mutual recognition arrangements would also accelerate harmonisation of standards of performance and facilitate such cross-border ventures.

Today, such liberalisation of the services sector is undertaken in the context of World Trade Organisation (WTO) services negotiations, and in negotiations leading to the establishment of the Free Trade Area (FTA).

The Asean Framework Agreement on services concluded in 1995 had provided progress in liberalisation of the region's services sector.

To date, three rounds of negotiations have been completed, covering four packages of commitments, with the offers made being improvements upon those offered under the General Agreement on Trade in Services in WTO.

Rafidah explained that such liberalisation put pressure on domestic service providers to upgrade and adapt to the new competition environment, and to successfully compete with foreign service providers.

At the same time, she said market liberalisation offered the opportunity to exploit new markets abroad, and in particular to forge synergistic alliance with foreign parties.

This, she added, was in order for the services sector to be better equipped in competing with larger regional and global markets, and to thrive in the global economy.

As the profile of industry and businesses changed, and complex cross-border ventures developed, service providers must be in a position to supply on demand the comprehensive range of services required by the market, Rafidah said.

"These will involve the application of information and communications technology (ICT) and the offer of creative services packages, which can meet the new types of business requirements," she said.