ASEAN ministers vow to narrow gap among nations

Margareth S. Aritonang,
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Wed, August 29 2012

ASEAN’s economic meeting pledged on Tuesday to support the association’s new members in order to narrow development gaps between the member countries.

“ASEAN gives us the privilege of assistance in order to accelerate our economies and to narrow the gap among the countries,” Laos Minister of Industry and Commerce Nam Viyaketh told reporters on the sidelines of the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting as quoted by english.news.cn.

ASEAN’s original members are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Membership was later expanded to include Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

The economic ministers meeting began in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Monday and will run until Aug. 31, focusing on efforts to narrow the economic gap between ASEAN’s members and boost equitable economic development in the region.

Addressing the opening session on Monday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said that the development gap among ASEAN members remained huge and the bloc needed to double its efforts to promote further growth and improve equitable distribution of the fruits of that growth at both national and regional levels.

Ahead of the meeting, the economic ministers also held on Sunday the 10th dialogue between the ASEAN economic ministers and the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC), discussing efforts to boost public-private sector partnerships in order to achieve the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015.

The ABAC was established in November 2001 in Brunei, and was inaugurated at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta in April 2003, as the primary vehicle for raising feedback and guidance from the private sectors in order to enhance efforts to create an integrated and competitive economy.

There will also be meetings on the 26th ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) Council and on the 15th ASEAN Investment Area (AIA) Council, also in Cambodia.

According to the official schedule, a consultation meeting between ASEAN Economic Ministers, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization Francis Gurry, and the ASEAN-US Business Summit as well as Cambodia’s Garment and Textile Expo, would also take place.

Separately in Jakarta, the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s general director for ASEAN, I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, said that more developed economic relations among ASEAN countries would also boost development in other aspects in the region, such as security and culture.

“We will continue to build on our previous meeting in Bali. We will further partner with country members in order to develop economic development within the region,” Puja told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.