PM Dung pushes for building East Asian Community

Addressing a special session on East Asia in Davos, Switzerland, on January 30, Mr Dung said an East Asian community of peace, stability, prosperity and progress is no longer a ‘dream and long-term vision”, but is now being established in reality.

“Since 1997 regional cooperation and integration towards the goal of building an East Asian community has been boosted through mechanisms initiated by ASEAN, and have achieved important results in many areas,” said Mr Dung. “In this process, economic cooperation and integration takes the lead, serving as a catalyst and an important material prerequisite for building the community.”

He affirmed that economic and trade integration between regional countries has deepened following the signing of a number of bilateral and multilateral free trade area (FTA) agreements. In addition, a plan to establish an East Asia Free Trade Area (EAFTA) within the ASEAN+3 framework and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia (CEPEA) is in the pipeline.

Mr Dung said ASEAN is devising a blueprint to connect all roads, railway lines, sea and air routes, and telecom infrastructure within the grouping and expanding to East Asia. In the next 30-50 years, East Asia will become an inter-connected region with ASEAN taking centre stage.

East Asian cooperation and integration has currently been carried out through ASEAN+3 and East Asia mechanisms, in which ASEAN+3 is considered the main tool with ASEAN forming the core, supported by the ASEAN+1, ASEAN Regional Forum and East Asian summits.

Mr Dung stressed that 2010 will be an important year for ASEAN to intensify community-building efforts. As ASEAN Chair, he said, Vietnam will work closely with other member countries to effectively implement the ASEAN Charter, speed up the building of an ASEAN community and expand relations between the grouping and its dialogue partners. The country is also responsible for coordinating and promoting cooperation within the ASEAN+3 and East Asian summits.

He affirmed that a dynamically developing and closely integrated ASEAN will play an important role in building the East Asian community. He called on developed countries to provide continued assistance to accelerate the building of the ASEAN Community by 2015 in order to narrow the development gap and increase internal integration.

In 2010 and in the following years, we should pool all resources to promote coordination for macro-policies, maintain sustainable growth and turn Asia into a dynamically developing region, said Mr Dung.  

To this end, he said regional countries should increase financial and monetary cooperation, implement the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation Agreement as soon as possible and increase the capacity of the regional banking system. East Asian nations should make more pro-active and practical contributions to the reform of global financial-monetary institutions and governance, including the G-20.

According to the Vietnamese leader, the Republic of Korea – a member of East Asia - will host the G-20 summit and this is a good chance for East Asia to elevate its status globally. ASEAN hopes to gain more opportunities to take part in G-20 summits.

Mr Dung underlined the need to increase economic, trade and investment cooperation and put in place FTA roadmaps for ASEAN and China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

He said it is time for East Asian economies to show strong resolve to increase regional and international economic integration and trade liberalisation, commit not to use protectionist measures, and play a proactive role in speeding up the progress of the Doha talks toward their completion.

Mr Dung proposed increasing infrastructure links to facilitate trade, investment and exchanges between regional people.

Another priority area is to increase cooperation to cope with global challenges such as climate change, food and security energy, environmental degradation, natural disasters and epidemics.

“I think that ASEAN in particular and East Asia in general should take the lead in regional and global efforts to address climate change. I propose establishing an East Asian Forum on Climate Change to draw up a joint action programme and contribute to setting up a global cooperation framework to deal with this big challenge. Vietnam is ready to play host to the first forum this year.”

The PM also said it is necessary to increase cooperation, tourism, education, cultural and people exchanges to promote mutual trust and understanding and raise public awareness of regional identity.

He called on Japan, China and the Republic of Korea – the three pillar countries in East Asia – to establish a regional fund for education cooperation and cultural exchange to realise the above targets.