BUSINESSBy Siti Radziah Hamzah KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 (Bernama) -- ASEAN must push structural reforms to strengthen private capital markets and enforce rules against non-tariff barriers (NTBs) if it is to remain competitive, said ASEAN-Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) chairman Tan Sri Nazir Razak. Nazir called for structural reforms to ensure complaints about NTBs could be acted upon. On capital markets, he said that according to a joint study by ASEAN-BAC and McKinsey, ASEAN’s private markets were underdeveloped at 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with the global average of 1.5 per cent. Nazir, who chairs the ASEAN Private Market Council, said these reforms would make investments more efficient, improve fund managers’ performance, and ultimately attract more capital from around the region. The ASEAN Private Market Council was established under an initiative led by ASEAN-BAC to address structural barriers in private capital development.