Philippine President Joseph Ejercito Estrada led on Sunday his fellow leaders of East Asia in crossing the bridge of stronger trust, amity and partnership which, he hoped, will bring the region closer to its goal of a unified community vibrant enough to make its mark in the globalized economy and help its peoples cross over to a better life.

"The bridge we will cross today has the strong foundations of trust, friendship and partnership. It can carry us all through. Let us now cross it," the President said, in his welcome remarks at the opening ceremonies of the Third Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Informal Summit at the Philippine International Convention Center.

The President said this summit, which brings together the leaders of ASEAN's 10 member-countries and their dialogue partners South Korea, China and Japan, will link up the grouping's past and future, experience and vision, and promise and fulfillment.

Perseverance, harder work and greater trust in each other's capability and their strength as a group will push ASEAN closer to a future common market with a unified currency, he said.

"If we persevere and work harder, maybe, the promise we fulfill will realize an even loftier dream. An East Asian common market. One East Asian currency. And one East Asian community -- a family from the happy union of the north and the south," President Estrada said.

Mr. Estrada said ASEAN has the means to achieve its goal of being "outward looking, living in peace, stability and prosperity, bonded together in partnership, in dynamic development and in a community of caring societies."

"ASEAN has the experience and the vision we need for success. Our organization has the power and privilege to lead our region on to the future with confidence. We know how to do it," he said.

The President said the challenges of the future, amid the wave of globalization and the recognition that its peoples are the region's greatest common resource, prompted ASEAN to focus its dialogue at this summit on information technology and with the private sector.

This effort to reach out to the private sector sends a strong message, the President said, that the people are ASEAN's most valuable resources and that the future belongs to them.

That future, Mr. Estrada said, "could mean a bit of Southeast Asia in nearly all computers or new gadgets sold them. It could mean a bit of Southeast Asian minds running those wonder devices. And it could mean a bit of Southeast Asian human or financial capital powering the firms that make them."

"We, as heads of governments, lead and act only on their behalf. With their direct involvement in charting and realizing our common destiny, we open the doors to the fullest flowering of our people's potential. We also affirm human dignity," he added.

But the President also called on ASEAN to remain united as it faces the future. He noted that some 40 years ago, Southeast Asia was merely a region of states "so close yet so far from one another."

Many were then recently set free from colonial rule, while others were trying to rebuild their lives from the ravages of World War II, he noted.

Regional identity was then an ideal, and practically removed from day-to-day lives of many rural agricultural populations.

"Southeast Asians were the proverbial growers of wood and drawers of water, supplying the world with products of farm and forest and little else," the President said.

But today, he pointed out, Southeast Asia is an integral part of the global village, with interdependence and globalization becoming the wave of the future.

"It is with this view of the future that the Philippines cared to arrange our dialogues at this summit with the private sector on Information Technology. Wiring Southeast Asia on to the information grid of the 21st century is a wise investment we should be making today. The success of the e-ASEAN can also trailblaze and hasten progress in the region," Mr. Estrada said.

The ASEAN was formed in 1967 with five founding members -- the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It has since expanded to include Brunei Darussalam in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia on April 30 this year.