Meeting of economic ministers of the communist and dictatorial regimes of SE Asia

CLMV economic ministers meet

August, 30 2010
VNS

DA NANG — Economic ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV) held their first talk last Saturday to discuss measures to narrow the development gaps between the four countries and other ASEAN member nations.

The meeting was held within the scope of the 42nd ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting, which took place in Da Nang last week.

Ministers proposed closer co-ordination in five major areas:

– Building and implementing projects under the 2nd Initiative for ASEAN Integration Work Plan framework;

– Building priority projects under sub-regional co-operation frameworks;

– Enhancing co-operation with regional and international institutions such as the Asian Development Bank, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia and ASEAN's dialogue partners;

– Furthering co-operation in Free Trade Agreements and other negotiations for the benefit of each country as well as the whole group; and

– Studying proposals to establish the CLMV Development Fund, as mentioned by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, to attract more assistance from dialogue partners for narrowing developing gaps.

Ministers urged the four countries to have more trade facilitation and promotion programmes, reaffirmed the importance of investment incentives and encouraged the establishment of special economic and export processing zones along CLMV borders.

They emphasised the vital role of vocational training and public administration capacity-building programmes.

They said policy co-ordination among the countries should be one of the main themes of CLMV economic co-operation.

Ministers agreed that the CLMV economic ministers' meetings would be convened twice a year.

ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said development gaps remained a fundamental issue that ASEAN nations needed to correct, as the bloc headed to the establishment of an economic community by 2015.

UN study spotlights serious development gaps among ASEAN members

Click on the picture above to read the UN report (PDF format)
or right click to download a copy

"Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic rank amongst the bottom quintile of all countries on the effectiveness of their governments, rule of law and the control of corruption" - Ten as One, a UN ESCAP report

UN News Centre

19 November 2007 – As the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) get set to discuss a plan for greater regional integration at their annual summit in Singapore this week, the United Nations has emphasized the need for the group to address serious development gaps among its 10 members if it is to move in that direction.

Ten as One: Challenges and Opportunities for ASEAN Integration, a new study by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), was released to coincide with this week’s regional summit, at which leaders will sign the ASEAN Charter and the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint.

The study notes that some of the greatest disparities among members relate to environmental and health issues. For example, while the group as a whole contributes a relatively small share of global carbon emissions – about 3.3 per cent of the world total – Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Malaysia exceed the global average of per capita emissions by a large margin. Brunei Darussalam’s per capita emissions rate is over 60,000 times higher than that of Cambodia.

According to ESCAP, the disparities in health are stark, with child and maternal mortality rates of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar between 11 and 47 times higher than those of Singapore.

Huge gaps also remain among ASEAN members in the areas of trade and investment. Foreign direct investment, for example, has been “heavily skewed,” with four countries – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam taking in 95 per cent of all FDI inflows. Meanwhile, the study states that such flows between ASEAN members have been “low and stagnant.”

ESCAP emphasizes that efforts towards regional integration will require all ASEAN members to obtain minimum levels of economic and social development if they are to benefit from the envisaged free movement in different areas. The report makes eight recommendations in three key areas where action is required: governance, cohesion policy and trans-ASEAN networks.

Stressing the urgency of addressing development gaps, ESCAP Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer stated that, in the long run, “uneven development is unsustainable, as instabilities resulting from disparities will spill across borders into neighbouring countries, involving the movement of displaced people and the transformation of border areas into possible conflict zones.”

Nor is it sustainable to build “firewalls” to contain instabilities rather than address root causes, she added.