ASEAN Lawmakers Urge Closer Cohesion, Economic Integration

Nearly 300 delegates to the 26th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organisation (AIPO) held in Laos’ capital, Vientiane on September 19-22, urged regional countries to make greater efforts towards speedier, closer economic cooperation and integration.

 

Recognising the need to accelerate regional economic integration in order to make the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) a single market and production base in 2010 and to realise the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2020, the parliamentarians encouraged the block’s member countries to actively implement the adopted activities and programmes, including the Vientiane Action Plan (VAP), the ASEAN Development Fund (ADF) and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI).

 

They noted that ASEAN members should pay due attention to narrowing the development gap, including the digital divide, within the block, while actively integrating their economies.

The six-year plan VAP adopted in Laos in 2004, the successor to the Hanoi Plan of Action, is aimed at realising the end goal of the ASEAN Vision 2020. It focuses on the implementation of the plans of action of the three pillars, namely security community, economic community and socio-cultural community, and the deepening of the regional integration and narrowing the development gap within the block, particularly the least developed member countries.

The delegates encouraged more developed ASEAN members to consider adding additional contributions on top of its first initial contribution of US$1 million on a voluntary basis in order to further strengthen the ADF, the block’s common pool of financial resources to support the implementation of the VAP and subsequent action plans.

 

They also requested the block’s dialogue partners, other countries and regional and international organizations with great financial potential to contribute to the ADF to support the deepening of ASEAN integration, which will, in turn, support the integration of Southeast Asia with other regions of the world.

 

Realising the need for energy security for ASEAN economic development amidst rising oil prices, and recognising the member countries’ diverse natural resources endowment and tremendous potential of new and renewable energy sources, lawmakers urged the countries to further find ways to promote the production and utilisation of renewable energy involving geothermal, hydroelectric, wind and solar power, and vegetable-based fuels from palm oil or coconut oil.

 

They also urged the countries to explore the possibility of including electric power in the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme, and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) as industrial and agricultural products, and invited stronger partnership between ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea), other dialogue partners and international organisations with stronger technological, research and development and investment capacity in the development of renewable energy for mutual benefit.

 

Besides economic matters, the delegates to the 26th AIPO General Assembly touched upon such political and social issues as anti-terrorism, sea piracy, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in Southeast Asia, the East Asian Summit (EAS), legal cooperation to combat against women and child trafficking, disaster management and emergency response.

 

The assembly is fully committed to enhancing their cooperative efforts to combat international terrorism by all means, in particular money laundering, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations (UN), the principles of international law and relevant UN resolutions at national, regional, and international levels.

 

The assembly called upon all ASEAN member countries to facilitate regional legal cooperation in combating illicit drug trafficking and urge them to formulate an ASEAN Extradition Treaty based on the Treaty of Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters and existing bilateral agreements. The member countries have declared a strong commitment to promote anti-drug campaign and to set the goal of achieving a drug-free ASEAN by 2015.

 

The assembly called upon all AIPO member countries to take legislative, administrative and other measures as necessary to implement the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response.

 

In addition, it encouraged the promotion of cooperation amongst ASEAN member countries, and between the block and other countries and international organisations, in disaster relief and emergency response, exchange of information and mutual assistance, and urged developed countries and international organisations to transfer advanced science and technology for the establishment of early warning systems in the region.

 

The 26th AIPO General Assembly was held in Laos for the first time with the participation of representatives from the eight AIPO members of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the two special observers of Brunei and Myanmar, and the nine observers of Australia, Canada, China, the European Parliament, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia and South Korea. The next assembly will take place in the Philippines next September.

 

AIPO was initiated by the Indonesian House of Representatives in 1974, and officially established in 1997 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The organisation admitted Vietnam in 1995, Laos in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999.

The 10-member ASEAN has a population of about 500 million, a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers, a combined gross domestic product of US$737 billion, and a total trade of US$ 720 billion.

 

“ASEAN has been raising its international position and taking solid steps along the road to broader regional integration, of which the convergence is the first East Asia Summit slated for this December in Malaysia. These results could not have been possible without the important contribution of AIPO, which reflects the voice, role and aspiration of our peoples.”

 

“We need to make more effort in building a strong cultural value among our youths, and having more people engaged in sports, arts and social activities. Campaigns to fight against drug abuse should be organised in parallel with treatment and rehabilitation programmes. New ways of living arrangements should be available to farmers in order to provide alternatives for the replacement of plants with narcotic nature by other high value crops. We need to create social awareness on the danger of the menace of drugs so as to achieve a drug-free ASEAN by 2015.”

 

 “We are getting ready now to sign Russia-ASEAN Agreement on Economic Cooperation and Development that shall form a stable basis for further interaction in various spheres, including politics, economics, anti-terrorism, anti-drug trafficking, culture and humanitarian work, through implementation of specific joint projects. We can see a great interest towards cooperation in the areas of science, culture, the mass media and tourism.”