The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is calling on its 10-member-countries to come up with ways and means on how to address the ever increasing prices of goods and services.

In an interview after the inaugural ASEAN-EU Business Summit at the Jakarta Convention Center on Friday here Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said that the regional bloc needed the group's "coordinated efforts" at addressing price increases.

Domingo, who joined other trade ministers for the first ever business meeting between the ASEAN and the 27-country strong European Union, said ASEAN was cognizant of the fact that price increases on goods and services did not only happen within a certain country but was a global phenomenon.

"We need coordinated efforts within ASEAN to address the increasing prices of goods," Domingo said.

The EU is the largest source of investment flows into ASEAN as the regional bloc received US$7.2 billion, or 18.4 percent of the total Foreign Direct Investment inflows into ASEAN in 2009.

The EU remains ASEAN's top export destination, with a share of 11.2 percent in 2009.

In terms of total trade, the EU is the second most important trading partner of ASEAN. In addition to business transactions, the EU has allocated a €70 million assistance to ASEAN for the period 2007 to 2013.

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