ASEAN to boost community building
VIETNAM: The 17th Association of Southeast Asian Countries
(ASEAN) summit opened in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi Thursday, with
leaders of ASEAN countries adopting the Master Plan of ASEAN
Connectivity, which will anchor the region’s bold and long-term strategy
to improve the region’s physical, institutional and people-to-people
connection.
The Master Plan of ASEAN Connectivity aims to enhance the links
between its member countries as well as between ASEAN and its partners
such as China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, giving the region’s
private sector a bigger role in the development of local economies.
The plan includes more than 700 projects and programs, with a volume
of investment around 380 billion US dollars, according to Surin Pitsuwan,
ASEAN’s secretary-General.
“We do hope that there will be participation both in terms of
contribution and private investment and private-public, public- private
investment,” Surin told Xinhua prior to the opening of the 17th ASEAN
Summit.
Building a community, which is in line with the fundamental benefits
of the ASEAN people, has long been the multi-lateral organization’s
aspiration. The idea of establishing a free trade area was first
proposed in 1992 by the 4th ASEAN summit. After the Asian financial
crisis that broke out in late 1990s, ASEAN realized that in order to
ensure the region’s security and stability, cooperation in aspects such
as politics, economy, security as well as social culture must be
boosted. Hence, the conception of establishing the ASEAN Community that
is similar to the European Union came into being.
ASEAN announced in 2003 that by 2020 it will complete the building of
the ASEAN Community which comprises three pillars, namely Security
Community, Economic Community and Socio-Cultural Community. In 2007, it
decided to advance the 2020 deadline to 2015.
The ASEAN Charter, which came into force in 2008 and serves as the
legal basis for the building of the ASEAN Community, stipulates that the
Community will be composed of the three pillars and will give all ASEAN
countries one objective, one identity as well as one voice, and will
enable those countries to face the challenges that are in store for them
as a whole. HANOI, Friday, Xinhua
|
