| The
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established
in 1967 between Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,
and Thailand. Since then, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam , Lao
PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia have joined. The region has a population
of about 500 million, and a combined GDP of US$ 700 billion.
ASEAN is mid-way between the EU and Mercosur in terms of its
maturity as an organization.
The
ASEAN Declaration gives the aims and purposes of the Association
as being to accelerate economic growth, social progress and
cultural development in the region and to promote regional
peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and
the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the
region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations
Charter.
ASEAN comprises the ASEAN Security Community, the ASEAN Economic
Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.
The
ASEAN Security Community (ASC) aims to ensure that countries
in the region live at peace with one another and with the
world in a just, democratic and harmonious environment. The
members of the Community pledge to rely exclusively on peaceful
processes in the settlement of intra-regional differences
and regard their security as fundamentally linked to one another
and bound by geographic location, common vision and objectives.
It has the following components: political development; shaping
and sharing of norms; conflict prevention; conflict resolution;
post-conflict peace building; and implementing mechanisms.
The
ASEAN Economic Community aims to create a stable, prosperous
and highly competitive ASEAN economic region in which there
is a free flow of goods, services, investment and a freer
flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced
poverty and socio-economic disparities in year 2020.
The
ASEAN Economic Community has agreed to accelerate regional
integration in the following priority sectors by 2010: air
travel, agro-based products, automotives, e-commerce, electronics,
fisheries, healthcare, rubber-based products, textiles and
apparels, tourism, and wood-based products; to facilitate
movement of business persons, skilled labour and talents;
and to strengthen the institutional mechanisms of ASEAN, including
the improvement of the existing ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism
to ensure expeditious and legally-binding resolution of any
economic disputes.
The
ASEAN Free Trade Area has moved a long way towards the abolition
of tariffs between ASEAN member states, although much remains
to be done.
Other
major integration-related economic activities of ASEAN include
the following:
- Roadmap
for Financial and Monetary Integration of ASEAN in four
areas, namely, capital market development, capital account
liberalisation, liberalisation of financial services and
currency cooperation;
- A
trans-ASEAN transportation network consisting of major inter-state
highway and railway networks, including the Singapore to
Kunming Rail-Link, principal ports, and sea lanes for maritime
traffic, inland waterway transport, and major civil aviation
links;
- Roadmap
for Integration of Air Travel Sector;
- Interoperability
and interconnectivity of national telecommunications equipment
and services, including the ASEAN Telecommunications Regulators
Council Sectoral Mutual Recognition Arrangement (ATRC-MRA)
on Conformity Assessment for Telecommunications Equipment;
- Trans-ASEAN
energy networks, which consist of the ASEAN Power Grid and
the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline Projects;
- Initiative
for ASEAN Integration (IAI) focusing on infrastructure,
human resource development, information and communications
technology, and regional economic integration primarily
in the CLMV countries;
Many
of these goals remain little more than pious hopes; but they
indicate the breadth of the vision that ASEAN is attempting
to implement.
The
ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, in consonance with the goal
set by ASEAN Vision 2020, envisages a Southeast Asia bonded
together in partnership as a community of caring societies
and founded on a common regional identity. ASEAN intends to
ensure that its work force is prepared for economic integration
by investing more resources for basic and higher education,
training, science and technology development, job creation,
and social protection. ASEAN also means to intensify cooperation
in the area of public health, including in the prevention
and control of infectious and communicable diseases.
ASEAN
ministerial meetings are held regularly in a number of sectors:
agriculture and forestry, economics (trade), energy, environment,
finance, health, information, investment, labour, law, regional
haze, rural development and poverty alleviation, science and
technology, social welfare, telecommunications, transnational
crime, transportation, tourism, youth. Supporting these ministerial
bodies are committees of senior officials, technical working
groups and task forces.
Bilateral
trading arrangements have been or are being forged between
ASEAN Member Countries and China, Japan, and the ROK. These
arrangements will serve as the building blocks of an East
Asian Free Trade Area as a long term goal.
To
support the conduct of ASEAN’s external relations, ASEAN
has established committees composed of heads of diplomatic
missions in the following capitals: Beijing, Berlin, Brussels,
Canberra, Geneva, Islamabad, London, Moscow, New Delhi, New
York, Ottawa, Paris, Riyadh, Seoul, Tokyo, Washington D.C.
and Wellington.
|