Enhancing self-reliance to keep "ASEAN stature" as epicentre of growth

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shared this at the plenary session of the 43rd ASEAN Summit held on September 9 in Jakarta in Indonesia.

The Vietnamese cabinet leader shared a common view on a tumultuous year. The world economy has shown further positive signs of recovery, although there still remains plenty of risks, unsustainable growth, the slow recovery of trade, and increasingly complicated geopolitical instability, he said.

Amid this context, through the joint efforts and solidarity of member countries and the leadership of Indonesia, this year's ASEAN Chair, the ASEAN community continues to develop stably and firmly with ever-increasingly strong "stature", thereby affirming its role as the epicentre of growth.

ASEAN continues to be a bright spot in economic growth, the centre of free trade agreement (FTA) networks and the centre of important regional co-operation mechanisms such as ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, and East Asia Summit (EAS).

To maintain "ASEAN's stature" as "the epicenter of growth", ASEAN's self-reliance must be enhanced through promoting economic linkages, expanding internal markets, and easing trade and investment flows.

In line with this, PM Chinh has requested that ASEAN member states urgently remove bottlenecks and barriers faced in terms of policies and institutions whilst maintaining stability of the intra-regional supply chain to improve the region's resilience to the impacts of the pandemic, as well as challenges from outside.

He also asked the ASEAN Economic Ministers to drastically direct the review, upgrade as well as negotiate new FTAs between ASEAN and partners in a bid to create a fresh impetus for the regional economic development.

ASEAN must therefore ensure regional peace and security first and foremost as part of the responsibilities of the bloc.

In order to do so, member states must uphold the spirit of solidarity, independence, and self-reliance, with this spirit being expressed in both words and actions. Only then can its role be truly promoted and receive practical respect from partners, especially large countries, the Vietnamese Government chief stressed.

ASEAN welcomes partners becoming involved in regional co-operation, those who support the regional bloc, and those joining it in responding to common challenges.

Faced with the current situation of increasing friction and strategic competition among major countries, PM Chinh especially emphasized that ASEAN must demonstrate a strong and united spirit to ensure that partners respect the central role of ASEAN, whilst opening a dialogue and co-operating in good faith, while also complying with the principles set forth by ASEAN mechanisms.

Looking forward to a bloc with equitable and sustainable development, PM Chinh reaffirmed the core spirit of ASEAN as putting "people as the center, goal and driving force of the community building process" so as to continue narrowing the development gap in the bloc, especially in remote and sub-regional areas.

He highly appreciated Indonesia's initiatives aimed at promoting the digital economy, the blue ocean economy, food security, and building an electric vehicle ecosystem with sustainable self-reliance, viewing these as both proactive and creative steps of ASEAN to serve the practical interests of the people.

In this spirit, the PM announced that the country will host the ASEAN Future Forum on rapid, sustainable, people-focused development to complement official forums and mechanisms of ASEAN, thereby creating opportunities to widely exchange ideas and initiatives regarding regional ties as a contribution to building a resilient and sustainable ASEAN Community.

Reporting on the situation of ASEAN collaboration over recent year, ASEAN Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn said that the regional economic growth momentum has been maintained with a positive forecast of 4.6% recorded in 2023 and 4.9% in 2024. ASEAN saw impressive growth of nearly 15%, reaching US$3.8 trillion as investment hit a record high of more than US$224 billion.

Speaking at the plenary session, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, shared that amid a difficult global economic context, ASEAN represents a bright spot with optimistic prospects for the future.

They emphasized that to become a global hub for growth, ASEAN should strive to accelerate economic restructuring reform, remove barriers to trade and investment, focus on investing in human development through education, health, equitable development, and boosting sustainable growth. In the face of increasing geopolitical competition, will, solidarity, co-operation, and trust continue to be among the enduring values of multilateralism to overcome all obstacles of fragmentation and division.

Leaders of countries expressed support for this year's cooperation theme "ASEAN's stature: The epicenter of growth" showing a proactive, resilient, and brave ASEAN.

Overcoming difficulties and challenges is part of building momentum for the ASEAN community, thereby continuing to mark new co-operation in all three pillars of politics-security, economics, and culture-society, thereby creating opportunities and motivation for stronger development in the future.

The trends of the times sees ASEAN require innovation in thinking, creativity in action, and breakthroughs in ideas to be able to take optimal advantage of new economic growth drivers such as digital economy, blue ocean economy, green transformation, and sustainable development.

In that spirit, the leaders discussed and recognized the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 with comprehensive directions to build a resilient, dynamic, creative, and people-centered ASEAN, while also seeking to establish a framework strategy for the focused development and breakthrough of the bloc over the next 20 years.

As part of this occasion, leaders adopted many important documents such as a declaration on inclusive development for people with disabilities, family development, gender equality, enhancing food security, early childhood care and education, and a framework on the ASEAN Public Health Emergency Coordination System, thus contributing to boosting efforts to build a people-oriented and people-based community.