By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service
HUA HIN, Thailand, March 1 -- Southeast Asian leaders concluded a two-day meeting Sunday that was dominated by the search for a coordinated response to the economic crisis but fell short of coming up with specific remedies.
In a statement, the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed on the "necessity of proactive and decisive policy actions to restore market confidence and ensure continued financial stability." But beyond recommitting themselves to better-coordinated economic stimulus programs and condemning trade protectionism, the leaders offered few detailed proposals.
The region's impressive growth over the past 10 years has been largely driven by exports, and ASEAN nations have been hit hard by the slowdown in demand in their main markets in the United States and Europe. Key members such as Singapore and Thailand registered significant contractions in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of last year, and the situation is expected to worsen before it starts to improve.
The meeting in the Thai resort of Hua Hin was billed as the dawn of a new era for ASEAN: It was the group's first gathering since the members signed a charter that incorporated the body as a legal entity. The members hope to create an ASEAN economic community -- a free-trade zone with a coordinated security policy -- by 2015.
At the meeting, the leaders also signed a free-trade pact with Australia and New Zealand, but they did little else to allay criticism that the group is ineffective.
One of the key elements of the new charter was the establishment of an independent human rights body. But the drive toward a more socially inclusive ASEAN hit a rocky patch Saturday when Burma and Cambodia threatened to walk out of a meeting on human rights if activists from their countries were included.
In a statement, the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed on the "necessity of proactive and decisive policy actions to restore market confidence and ensure continued financial stability." But beyond recommitting themselves to better-coordinated economic stimulus programs and condemning trade protectionism, the leaders offered few detailed proposals.
The region's impressive growth over the past 10 years has been largely driven by exports, and ASEAN nations have been hit hard by the slowdown in demand in their main markets in the United States and Europe. Key members such as Singapore and Thailand registered significant contractions in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of last year, and the situation is expected to worsen before it starts to improve.
The meeting in the Thai resort of Hua Hin was billed as the dawn of a new era for ASEAN: It was the group's first gathering since the members signed a charter that incorporated the body as a legal entity. The members hope to create an ASEAN economic community -- a free-trade zone with a coordinated security policy -- by 2015.
At the meeting, the leaders also signed a free-trade pact with Australia and New Zealand, but they did little else to allay criticism that the group is ineffective.
One of the key elements of the new charter was the establishment of an independent human rights body. But the drive toward a more socially inclusive ASEAN hit a rocky patch Saturday when Burma and Cambodia threatened to walk out of a meeting on human rights if activists from their countries were included.
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