Special fund proposed to help four less-developed Asean members
Weekend • November 17, 2007
Lee U-Wen
u-wen@mediacorp.com.sg
MediaCorp (Singapore)
A SPECIAL fund has been proposed to help the four less-developed countries in the Association of South-east Asian Nations — Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia — close the gap on its neighbours.
"The four particular members are in a state of economic development less than the rest. In order to redress that, we propose a fund to be established," said former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam, who now heads the Asean Eminent Persons Group (EPG).
Speaking at the opening of the Asean Business and Investment Summit at the Suntec Convention Centre on Friday, Mr Musa said his idea had been accepted by the EPG and put forward to Asean leaders for consideration. While he did not disclose the details of the proposal, he said he was hopeful that it would be adopted.
A similar fund to help bridge the development gap within the 10-member grouping was also mooted this August by former Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan. However, such a fund was deemed unnecessary by Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said there were already existing mechanisms within Asean to help close development gaps.
At the two-hour dialogue yesterday, Mr Musa said the Asean Charter — to be signed next Tuesday — was a reflection of the region's achievements and growth over the last 40 years. The charter, formulated by the EPG, sets out Asean's goals to achieve economic integration and help the region stay relevant with the rest of the world. Mr Musa said that for Asean to become even more cohesive in the long term, it could not rely solely on governments to be the driving force.
"The governments can only facilitate; it is the people and the private sector that have to lead and be brave enough and produce results," he said.
Mr Musa said he tried to introduce a clause to suspend or expel countries that don't fulfil their individual commitments. However, his wish for such a deterrent measure is unlikely to be included in the charter, contents of which have been leaked online. Penalties will instead come in the form of the withdrawal of benefits, with a new dispute settlement mechanism being used to enforce discipline, said Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang earlier this week.
Looking ahead, Asean Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said nationalism would always be a challenge for the region but each country would do well to identify its own competitive edge and use that to drive Asean forward collectively. "We are successful because we are inter-governmental. All of us have a say and we don't lose our national identity," he said.
Still, he admitted that the world was "less than perfect" and that Asean had its fair share of problems, such as last year's military coup in Thailand and the deadly crackdown by Myanmar's military government on pro-democracy protesters in September this year.
Weekend • November 17, 2007
Lee U-Wen
u-wen@mediacorp.com.sg
MediaCorp (Singapore)
A SPECIAL fund has been proposed to help the four less-developed countries in the Association of South-east Asian Nations — Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia — close the gap on its neighbours.
"The four particular members are in a state of economic development less than the rest. In order to redress that, we propose a fund to be established," said former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam, who now heads the Asean Eminent Persons Group (EPG).
Speaking at the opening of the Asean Business and Investment Summit at the Suntec Convention Centre on Friday, Mr Musa said his idea had been accepted by the EPG and put forward to Asean leaders for consideration. While he did not disclose the details of the proposal, he said he was hopeful that it would be adopted.
A similar fund to help bridge the development gap within the 10-member grouping was also mooted this August by former Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan. However, such a fund was deemed unnecessary by Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said there were already existing mechanisms within Asean to help close development gaps.
At the two-hour dialogue yesterday, Mr Musa said the Asean Charter — to be signed next Tuesday — was a reflection of the region's achievements and growth over the last 40 years. The charter, formulated by the EPG, sets out Asean's goals to achieve economic integration and help the region stay relevant with the rest of the world. Mr Musa said that for Asean to become even more cohesive in the long term, it could not rely solely on governments to be the driving force.
"The governments can only facilitate; it is the people and the private sector that have to lead and be brave enough and produce results," he said.
Mr Musa said he tried to introduce a clause to suspend or expel countries that don't fulfil their individual commitments. However, his wish for such a deterrent measure is unlikely to be included in the charter, contents of which have been leaked online. Penalties will instead come in the form of the withdrawal of benefits, with a new dispute settlement mechanism being used to enforce discipline, said Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang earlier this week.
Looking ahead, Asean Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said nationalism would always be a challenge for the region but each country would do well to identify its own competitive edge and use that to drive Asean forward collectively. "We are successful because we are inter-governmental. All of us have a say and we don't lose our national identity," he said.
Still, he admitted that the world was "less than perfect" and that Asean had its fair share of problems, such as last year's military coup in Thailand and the deadly crackdown by Myanmar's military government on pro-democracy protesters in September this year.
3 comments:
Wow, it feels so good to see our ASEAN brothers are thinking of us. We really don't want to impose anything on our ASEAN family members, but what we really needed is trade whch will helped us to reduce our unemployment rate and bring back hope and moral value to our people. Thus, we appreciated any consideration in that area instead.
And on behalf of your Indochinese members, thank you for your kindness and generosity.
God blesses ASEAN!
Well economic management and free of corupption is an incentive for economic growth, not foreign aids.
There is no such thing as free of corruption. Once the unemployment is low, the corruption will be controllable.
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