Representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations visited Salt Lake City Wednesday, taking part in a trade forum to strengthen business ties between Utah and their region.

Six ambassadors representing Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam took part in the forum. Representatives also were present from Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar.

Brett Heimburger, director of Asia for the Governor's Office of Economic Development, called the two-day visit by the ASEAN ambassadors an unprecedented event for Salt Lake City.

"The ASEAN region represents about 550 million people in 10 countries with gross domestic product around half of China," Heimburger said. "Utah companies tend to be focused on the growth of China and India. But this is a huge market with some of the fastest-growing economies in the world."

Roughly 220 people attended Wednesday's forum at the Grand America Hotel. About 175 of those in attendance were representatives of Utah companies and organizations who do business in southeast Asia or are interested in expanding to the region.

Heimburger said the purpose of the event is helping Utah companies make contacts with ASEAN officials to grow their respective businesses.

"The beauty of ASEAN is that you really have different sub-economies within the larger framework," Heimburger said. "Some of those economies are rapidly growing with large populations. For instance, Vietnam has 84 million people and is growing at about 8.5 percent. So you have a higher end subsegment of that population that is now starting to become wealthier. So they can start to buy many of the products that the U.S. exports."

Indonesia Ambassador Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat said the ASEAN community was established in 1967 to leverage mainly small and medium-size countries.

"The end of the Cold War had paved the way for the enlargement of ASEAN memberships to include all the Indochina countries," said the ambassador. "From a grouping of six countries, ASEAN now comprises all 10 countries in southeast Asia. The enlargement process brought about not only a larger ASEAN but also greater diversity."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who served as U.S. ambassador to Singapore, said state government is committed to providing services necessary to help Utah companies compete globally.

Part of that effort centers on bringing a World Trade Center to Utah. The WTC Utah is in the process of gaining a charter from the World Trade Center Association, which includes 287 centers worldwide, 58 of them in the United States.

"There are not many World Trade Centers in this region of the country," Huntsman said. "I think we will be the only one between Denver and Long Beach, Calif. We're doing it because many of us believe that small and medium-size businesses are trying to understand the lay of the land internationally. They need to understand the markets."

Martin Hutagalung, manager of the US-ASEAN Business Council Inc., a Washington, D.C., trade organization, said ASEAN representatives have visited just 20 U.S. cities over the past 10 years. Salt Lake City was their last stop in the current campaign.

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