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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has achieved close to 80 percent of the overall measures under the three ASEAN Community blueprints, Myanmar President U Thein Sein said at a the opening of a summit meeting of regional leaders on Wednesday.
However, "challenges remains in implementing the remaining 20 percent of the targets and addressing the issues that will emerge in the Post 2015 ASEAN Community," he said.
Speaking at the opening of the 25th ASEAN Summit in Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar, Thein Sein said that that the current ASEAN Summit and related summits involving leaders of partners countries "take place at an important juncture for ASEAN as the ASEAN Community will emerge at the end of next year."
Thein Sein said that two main tasks were undertaken during this year, including consideration for strengthening the ASEAN Institutions and efforts to develop the ASEAN Community's Post 2015 Vision. Separately, the ASEAN Secretariat said Wednesday that the summit is expected to adopt the Nay Pyi Taw Declaration for the ASEAN Community's Post-2015 Vision.
"We are very satisfied that ASEAN is making progress in various areas in line with this year's theme of 'Moving Forward in Unity, to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community,'" he said.
ASEAN has set the target of realizing an ASEAN Community by the end of 2015. It comprises three pillars such as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the ASEAN Political-Security Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.
The ASEAN Economic Community, which is obviously the most important pillar, is envisaged to be a single market and production base, a competitive economic region, a region with equitable economic development and a region integrated into the global economy. ASEAN has also introduced a scorecard to gauge its progress in the implementation of the goals under the ASEAN Economic Community. Myanmar is the rotating ASEAN chair country this year.
Some scholars said that connectivity, consensus and ASEAN centrality may be among the core issues that ASEAN leaders will have to tackle beyond 2015, with non-traditional security challenges as another key area of cooperation. ASEAN leaders, in developing the vision for the next stage of community building, would also need to take into account the challenges arising from the changing global economic landscape, as the demand from the developed economies is expected to remain weak and the East Asian region is set to have an ever more closely integrated production network.
The importance of maintaining ASEAN's central role as a regional cooperation platform has been highlighted. The ASEAN Secretariat said that the summit is expected to adopt a Declaration on Strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat and Reviewing the ASEAN Organs.
The Myanmar president also said that ASEAN will continue to expand external relations that will bring benefit to the ASEAN Community.
"It is time for us to consider strategically in expanding our external relations with potential trading and investment partners. We should also look into ways to engage more with G-20 and emerging global economies, namely BRICS and markets in other regions," he said. Enditem
