The new committee was set up at the US-ABC annual meeting which was held on the sidelines of the 43rd ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting (AEM-43) in Mandano, Indonesia, on August 13.

Chaired by Sam Kim from Procter & Gamble, the committee will channel the US private sector’s support for ASEAN economic integration and capacity building for ASEAN and its member countries.

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said the AEM and the US Trade Representative (USTR) agreed to organise a programme to promote ASEAN to the US business community as well as an ASEAN-US Business Forum next year.

Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said the initiatives, with the involvement of both governments and business circles, will help strengthen and deepen economic integration between ASEAN and the US.

The Business Forum is expected to focus on the selected business sectors in which ASEAN and the US have mutual interests, she added.

Meanwhile, US-ABC President Alexander Feldman stressed that ASEAN's successful integration will create a single market of 600 million people, making it the world’s third largest market.

This is the perfect time for the US-ABC to step up its commitment to enhance ASEAN’s economic integration, said Feldman.

This year’s US-ABC annual meeting drew representatives from 12 US leading companies, including Procter & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Cargill, FedEx Express, GE, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Syngenta, UPS, and White & Case.