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PM Lee outlines three priorities for ASEAN

KUALA LUMPUR — Deepening economic cooperation, widening collaboration to new areas like disaster management and strengthening the organisation and Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are three priorities for the regional pact after a series of regional integration efforts aimed at creating a common ASEAN community are implemented by this year, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: AP

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: AP

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KUALA LUMPUR — Deepening economic cooperation, widening collaboration to new areas like disaster management and strengthening the organisation and Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are three priorities for the regional pact after a series of regional integration efforts aimed at creating a common ASEAN community are implemented by this year, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Speaking at the plenary session of the 26th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday morning, Mr Lee said that as ASEAN moves beyond 2015, it should strengthen economic cooperation by tackling more challenging issues such as non-tariff barriers to trade.

ASEAN has set itself an ambitious target of becoming an integrated community by December 31. With eight more months to go before the deadline, Mr Lee said that it was important to ensure greater services liberalisation, ratify the ASEAN open skies agreement and aim for a high quality Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a proposed free trade agreement between ASEAN and key dialogue partners Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

ASEAN should also expand cooperation to new areas like disaster management, regional nuclear safety and transboundary pollution, he said.

“While growth is important, we must also grow sustainably; because otherwise the lives and the healths of our citizens will be affected. One such sustainable growth issue is transboundary haze pollution,” said Mr Lee, who welcomed President Joko Widodo’s commitment to tackle forest fires in Indonesia.

Mr Lee noted that all 10 ASEAN member states have ratified the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which shows that they recognise the importance of the issue.

“Next step is for us to operationalise the Haze Monitoring System and develop more cooperative projects together,” added Mr Lee, referring to the system which uses hot-spot data and satellite images to pinpoint illegal forest burning activities.

Mr Lee added that efforts should also be made to strengthen the ASEAN Secretariat.

“Our common objective is to make ASEAN processes more efficient, so that we will have more time for meaningful discussions,” he said, as he voiced support for the proposal to reduce the number of summit meetings from two to one every year, as part of overall efforts to make ASEAN a more efficient organisation.

The theme for the ASEAN summit, which is chaired by Malaysia, is “Our People, Our Community, Our Vision”.

In his opening address for the summit meeting, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said: “We want to make ASEAN people centred. This means good governance, higher standards of living, sustainable development, empowerment of women, and greater opportunity for all people.

“A people-centred ASEAN is one in which our citizens feel that they are not just part of ASEAN. But that regardless of who they are – from rice farmers, to Forex dealers, halal business owners, fishermen and electronics engineers – our citizens actually feel that they are ASEAN, and its future is their future,” he added.

Regional leaders will adjourn to Langkawi on Monday afternoon for an informal retreat, where they are expected to discuss key geopolitical issues including the situation in the South China Sea and how to combat the threat of extremist group Islamic State.

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