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THE
Association of Southeast Asian Nations needs to
integrate its economy with East Asian economic giants
China, Japan and South Korea not only to solve widening
development gaps among them but also address terrorism
and conflict in the region, Foreign Affairs Secretary
Alberto Romulo said Thursday.
In his
keynote address at the East Asian integration forum at
the Hotel Sofitel, Romulo said the bloc’s dialogue
country partners play a critical role in supporting the
implementation of Asean’s Vientiane Action Program
adopted at the 10th Asean Summit in Laos, which seeks to
narrow the development gap between the so-called CLMV
subgroup (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) and the
Asean-6, or the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore,
Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand.
“Asean
remains keenly interested in engaging all interested
countries and organizations toward realizing an open
regional architecture capable of adopting to change.
This entails giving other dialogue partners such as
Australia, the EU, India, New Zealand, Russia and the
United States an appropriate role to play in the
emerging regional architecture,” said Romulo.
“I am
referring to the Brunei
Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asia
Growth Area [BIMP-Eaga], Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand
Growth Triangle, and other subregional organizations
dedicated toward enhancing the economic development of
areas that have not benefited from the general progress
and prosperity enjoyed throughout the region,” added
Romulo.
He said
Asean economic integration efforts, targetted for
completion by 2015, should also focus on the development
of members facing common poverty, extremism and conflict
problems.
He said
BIMP-Eaga, for instance, was created to balance the
development in the four involved countries by creating
growth areas where “pockets of extreme poverty” still
prevail.
Romulo
remains hopeful the regional bloc, through its charter,
would be able to meet the future challenges and
opportunities posed by regional integration, the
expansion of its external linkages and rapid
globalization.
Asean is
currently negotiating free-trade agreements with major
economies like China, Japan, South Korea as well as the
European Union. |
