Development gap major hindrance to fulfill ASEAN community by 2015

by Nguon Sovan, Zhang Ruiling
 
   PHNOM PENH, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The development gap is the key constraint for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to work together to achieve an ASEAN community by 2015, said Chheang Vannarith, an ASEAN expert of Cambodia.

   “To narrow the gap between richer nations and poorer countries, ASEAN needs to do more to assist its least developed countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar to develop, especially in human resources development and infrastructure connectivity,” Vannarith, who is also the executive director of Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

   At the meantime, he said that to build a strong and unified community, the ASEAN needs to have one voice on global stage in the issues relevant to common interests, particularly those issues dealing with human security.

   “ASEAN one voice can assist ASEAN member countries to have more leverage on regional and global stage,” he said.

   To achieve ASEAN one voice, he said each member country must hold the “definition of national interest is the regional interests” and the ASEAN community has to realize one vision and one identity plus one destiny.

   Also, it needs to strengthen the regional institution- ASEAN Secretariat and its relevant bodies- in providing a common platform for ASEAN's foreign policy on global stage.

   Vannarith said ASEAN also needs to build mutual trust among each other in order to secure security and prosperity in the region.

   “ASEAN leaders need to talk more with each other in rather an informal way in order to understand each other more,” he said. “So far, ASEAN is facing with the politics of ceremony. ASEAN needs to be more substantive and actions oriented.”

   And for credibility building with between ASEAN and powerful countries, he said “frank and open discussion” at working level needs to be strengthened and research think tanks need to engage more actively with the government officials to think and design action plans together.

  Also, ASEAN needs to stay resilient with consistent and persistent foreign policy and approaches.

   In terms of the ASEAN-China relations, he said that the bilateral ties are progressing “very fast in the economic field, but slow in strategic cooperation” since there are remaining issues such as South China Sea.

   “For the issues of South China Sea, regional issues need purely regional response. Extra regional actors should not intervene and stir the tension,” he said. “We should look at the South China Sea issue from economic point of view and concerned parties need to strengthen both bilateral and multilateral dialogues.”

   Vannarith said that to bridge closer relations with ASEAN, China needs to promote more cultural and education exchanges between the people of China and ASEAN, and more academic discussion and joint research projects are required more attention.

   Economic interdependence between China and ASEAN can reduce strategic mistrust and trust between the leaders and people of China and ASEAN need to further strengthened and nurtured, he said.

   Also, China needs to engage more with civil society organizations in Southeast Asia especially those organizations dealing with development.

   The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.