“There are five countries that have already agreed,” Roque said on the sidelines of the ASEAN Business Media Exchange.
According to the DTI, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have expressed strong interest in participating in the initiative.
Under the proposal, oil would be stored in participating countries to provide an emergency supply that ASEAN members could tap during a crisis.
Roque said the United Arab Emirates has also expressed willingness to participate by supplying oil for storage in interested countries.
“Many want to onboard this kind of initiative. So what will happen here, even if not all the ASEAN countries agree, at least those countries that have already agreed can get…we can get started on this,” she said.
Roque also underscored the importance of strengthening economic cooperation among ASEAN members, saying the regional bloc has significant collective market and trade potential.
“For other countries all over the world, they look at ASEAN now as a very strong force to reckon with, [w]e really focus on the potential of ASEAN as a bloc,” Roque said.
She said ASEAN members should align trade policies while learning from each other's best practices.
Among the Philippines' key priorities during its ASEAN chairship is the Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), which seeks to strengthen regional cooperation on e-commerce, digital trade, cybersecurity and digital payments.
Roque said negotiations have been concluded and the agreement has undergone legal review, with signing targeted for November.
“With DEFA, in our chairship, it has already been concluded and the legal scrubbing has already been done. So signing will be in November. So this will be the biggest deliverable, at least for the DTI, among all other deliverables in this ASEAN chairship,” she said.
