Thursday, October 25, 2012

Asean Forum To Discuss Disparities In And Among Members

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 (Bernama) -- The fourth Asean Integration Development Cooperation Forum (IDCF), to be held on Oct 29, will set the stage for important discussions on how critical it is for Asean to address disparities in and among its 10-members in order to realise the Asean Community by 2015.

The forum will provide information about progress on the implementation of the Initiative for Asean Integration (IAI) Work Plans as well as update dialogue partners, development agencies, policy makers of key challenges facing Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in the quest to narrow the development divide.

A statement from the Jakarta-based Asean secretariat said as the grouping faced challenges to better integrate new members and the lesser-developed areas, a critical issue that it had to contend with was the need to narrow the development gap.

The IDCF was established to serve as the main venue for engaging Asean's Dialogue Partners and other donors in a collective dialogue on the IAI Work Plan.

Making this forum the fourth, three IDCF's have previously been organised, in 2002, 2007, and 2010.

-- BERNAMA

No comments: