It is a pleasure for me to speak to you on the challenges and prospects of ASEAN Community Building at the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) Monthly Luncheon today. Indeed, the role of SGC in promoting and strengthening trade relations and business linkages between Singapore and Germany has provided support to the community building process in ASEAN.
2. The signing of the Bali Concord II marked the establishment of an ASEAN Community comprising three pillars, namely ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), ASEAN Security Community (ASC), and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) which are closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing. What I would like to draw your attention to are the two significant milestones towards ASEAN Community Building achieved at the 13th ASEAN Summit held in Singapore last week. First, the signing of the ASEAN Charter was a historic milestone for ASEAN, representing its common vision and commitment to the development of an ASEAN Community as a region of lasting peace, stability, sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and social progress.
3. The ASEAN Charter will serve the organisation well in three interrelated ways, that is, formally accord ASEAN legal personality, establish greater institutional accountability and compliance system, and reinforce the perception of ASEAN as a serious regional player in the future of the Asia Pacific region. In particular, the ASEAN Charter will provide, among other things, a new structure designed to ensure timely implementation, to enhance coordination between and within the three Communities, and to reposition ASEAN to better meet challenges of the 21st century.
4. Second, the signing of the Declaration on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint by ASEAN Leaders which mapped out the steps towards transforming ASEAN into a single market and production base, a highly competitive region with equitable economic development, and fully integrated into the global community by 2015. In essence, the AEC Blueprint will place ASEAN at the axis of global economic development through a comprehensive and deeper level of regional economic integration over the next 8 years.
ASEAN Community: Challenges and Prospects
5. As ASEAN entered its fortieth year with the endorsements of ASEAN Charter and AEC Blueprint, it is poised for big leap forward provided the challenges are overcome. Here, I would like to highlight two key challenges in building the ASEAN Community with a focus on the Economic Community.
The Challenge of Implementing Agreements
6. Signing the ASEAN Charter and AEC Blueprint is a clear signal that ASEAN commits itself to community building. However, it is only the first step. Prompt ratification of these agreements is equally important. Recent increase in the momentum to liberalise trade and investment, and the focus on trade facilitation in goods and services clearly reflect ASEAN's determination to establish the AEC by 2015. At the 13th ASEAN Summit, ASEAN Leaders called for timely implementation of the provisions of the Blueprint, which should be monitored through the development of an AEC Scorecard mechanism. This will motivate the business and the public to earnestly promote and strongly support community building in ASEAN.
7. Implementation is crucial at the national level. Take for example the case of ASEAN Single Window where National Single Windows need to be established. Public servants in the relevant national agencies have to be prepared for this change. In part, this is about ensuring that across the board, they have the ICT skill requirements and can absorb the new procedures. But it is also about changing mindsets. Customs officials need to cultivate a mindset that welcomes innovation and have an outlook that sees the benefit of working regionally. Businesses also need to play their role and be ready to adapt to regional changes.
The Challenge of Reaching Out and Coordinating Delivery
8. Achieving success in community building requires the involvement of the entire ASEAN family. This includes frequent exchange of ideas among stakeholders on the development of building the ASEAN Community. It is essential to create a mechanism to allow the stakeholders to share their views and suggestions and to understand how their inputs can have a positive influence on ASEAN.
9. Having more outreach programmes is essential. It would assist ASEAN in refining its policy development by getting more insights from you as stakeholders. What is important is that communicating ASEAN to its businesses and people should be a two-way process and should be mainstreamed in all ASEAN work. It is a positive move ahead as ASEAN Leaders have designated 2008 to be the year for promoting ASEAN Economic Community Awareness.
10. Holding regular meetings with the government and the private sector provides a platform for open discussion and sharing information. It infuses knowledge of and creates a common perspective of regional priorities among the stakeholder groups. It is in this context that the ASEAN Secretariat plans to hold a Coordinating Conference on ASEAN Economic Community (ECOM) next year to exchange views on issues related to AEC.
11. It is clear that the tasks ahead would be too much, and too important, for governments alone. New strategies and partnerships had to be forged and the business community, among others, was enjoined to get involved as ASEAN Community is a shared responsibility that benefits all of us.
The Importance of ASEAN-EU Relations
12. Over the past thirty years, ASEAN-EU relations have grown and expanded to cover a wide range of areas including economic and trade, political and security, social and cultural and development cooperation. The launch of ASEAN-EU Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations based on a region-to-region approach took the ASEAN-EU relations to the next level. It is essential to negotiate this FTA expeditiously in order to derive the benefits.
13. EU has always been a strong supporter for ASEAN regional integration. This is signified by ongoing cooperation programmes which cover various areas. The EU continued to assume an important role in supporting ASEAN meeting its community-building challenges through activities agreed under the Trans-Regional EU-ASEAN Trade Initiative (TREATI) and the Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (READI). Although ASEAN is not aiming for EU-style integration as yet, we could learn various lessons on the best practices of regional integration from EU.
14. I am pleased to learn that SGC has an ASEAN Guide in German language. All forms of support from the stakeholders would help us take a few steps forward in building an ASEAN Community. In this ASEAN Community, we need to implement agreed ASEAN initiatives at both the regional and national levels. With an ASEAN Charter and AEC Blueprint in place, we have made a good start and the prospects moving forward are bright.
15. A diverse Southeast Asia nations can share the same aspiration to build the ASEAN Community is in itself a milestone. Through hard work and clever use of the opportunities available, ASEAN is on the mark for a quantum leap towards "One Vision, One Identity, One Community".