Address at A Private Sector Salute to ASEAN,sponsored by the Asian Strategy
and Leadership Institute, Selangor, Malaysia, 16 December 1997
I have been asked to share my views on "ASEAN Into the Future."
I suggest that there is no better guide to ASEAN's future than the vision statement issued by ASEAN's leaders yesterday, the document called ASEAN Vision 2020.
The vision statement is most aptly named. First, Vision 2020 connotes clarity of vision. Secondly, the leaders set their sight on the year 2020, a target close enough to be reasonably foreseeable, but far enough away to afford a fairly long-term view and serve as a goal worth reaching for.
Let us, then, spend a little time in looking over the document which our heads of state and government gave us yesterday in order to light our way to ASEAN's future.
Examining the statement, we see that the elements comprising our leaders' vision have profound implications for our lives, not least for doing business in this region.
Cooperative peace
These elements range from the lofty and universal to the specific and practical.
Vision 2020 talks of peace, but it speaks not only of keeping the dogs of war at bay but of a true and enduring peace, of a condition in which the very causes of conflict have been eliminated.
More specifically, the statement singles out the enduring means for destroying the roots of war and conflict in today's world -- respect for justice, the rule of law, and national and regional resilience.
Justice and the rule of law -- surely, these are essential both to peace and stability and to a sound economy made possible by a good and stable investment climate and business environment.
In the ASEAN context, national resilience means a degree of economic vigor, social cohesion and cultural richness that makes a nation strong. Regional resilience means the extent of regional political, economic, social and cultural cooperation that reinforces the resilience of each nation and thereby the collective strength of the region. According to our leaders, an essential part of such cooperation is the sharing of prosperity, a sharing that nourishes not only development but peace itself.
Thus, in the view of our leaders, peace and security on the one hand and economic, social and cultural development on the other hand reinforce each other for the welfare of our peoples, our nations and our region.
The vision statement cites other important factors of regional peace -- the peaceful settlement of territorial and other disputes, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia as a binding code of conduct, the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Treaty as an instrument for a nuclear-free Southeast Asia, the ASEAN Regional Forum as both a venue for consultation and dialogue on regional security and a framework for confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in Asia and the Pacific. But what stands out is the stress that the leaders place on the two-way linkage between peace and development and among friendship, cooperation and commerce.
Trade and investment
The leaders re-affirm their nations' commitment to the liberalization of trade and investment in the region, primarily through the full implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the acceleration of the liberalization of trade in services, the early creation of the ASEAN Investment Area, and the unhampered flow of investments by 2020. They have issued a mandate to step up the free flow of professional and other services in the region. Yesterday, in the leaders' presence, the ASEAN Economic Ministers signed a protocol to launch the implentation of the initial package of commitments under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services. The leaders have declared their determination to link the ASEAN countries through the ASEAN Power Grid and trans-ASEAN gas and water pipelines -- for the more efficient delivery of vital utilities to ASEAN's peoples. Physical links are to be strengthened also through transportation and communication networks made more effective by liberal policies and modern technology.
All this should help considerably to stimulate business activity in ASEAN and offer enormous opportunities for investment and trade.
The leaders have resolved to intensify and expand cooperation in sub-regional growth areas -- the Northern Triangle involving Sumatra, northern West Malaysia and southern Thailand, the SIJORI of Singapore, Johor and the Riau archipelago, and the East ASEAN Growth Area of Brunei Darussalam, eastern Indonesia, East Malaysia and southern Philippines, or BIMP-EAGA. In addition to these, the Philippines has proposed a new growth polygon -- among Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, southeastern Thailand, and central and northwestern Philippines. Such growth areas present more, immense business opportunities -- in many cases, serving not only the business interests of investors and traders, not only the economic welfare of the people in the growth areas, but the cause of neighborly peace as well.
This is an outstanding example of peace and development interacting with and fortifying each other.
A similar example is the ASEAN Mekong Basin Development Cooperation, which the ASEAN leaders also discussed yesterday -- among themselves and with the leaders of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. This scheme, agreed upon at the Fifth ASEAN Summit in Bangkok two years ago, would bind the riparian countries and southern China together in a massive effort to develop their enormous potential, in an area which, not so long ago, had been ravaged by war and divided by mutual hostility and suspicion. Here is another program laden with business opportunities.
In the vision statement, the leaders pledge to develop an ASEAN-wide, "world-class" system of health, safety and environmental standards and conformance, so as to facilitate the flow of intra-ASEAN trade. To the same end, they resolve to harmonize their customs procedures.
The liberalization of trading and investment regimes; the free flow of goods, investments and services; transportation, communications and other physical linkages; growth areas made up of contiguous zones of neighboring countries; the harmonization of standards and customs procedures -- these are the staples of regional economic cooperation, with the leaders' renewed commitment and resolve promising to give them impetus.
Regional integration
But what is remarkable about ASEAN Vision 2020 is the signal that it gives of a new integrated approach to regional economic cooperation. In the economic portion of the document, the leaders speak not only in terms of the freer flow of goods, investments and services, but also in terms of close consultation on macro-economic and financial policies, human-resource development, science and technology, the environment, and the sustainability of development.
What we can conclude from our leaders' vision is that the next two decades of ASEAN will be marked by much closer integration -- integration in various senses and dimensions.
Part of that vision is an ASEAN that is ever more closely integrated as economies and societies -- a free trade area, an investment area, the freer flow of services, the coordination of macro-economic and financial policies, the conformance of standards, the harmonization of procedures, and so on.
But our leaders also envision another kind of integration; and that is the meshing together of the various strands of human endeavor so necessary in the pursuit of economic and human development as we enter the next millennium -- the breaking down of the artificial separation of trade and investment from finance, of industry from the environment, of the economy from human-resource development -- the lowering of the barriers with which Southeast Asian governments and ASEAN as a whole have hitherto approached ASEAN cooperation.
The financial and currency turmoil currently besetting East Asia's markets and economies has taught us, at great cost, that coordination among finance ministries and central bankers and between them and the trade and industry, foreign affairs and other ministries must assume its place in the mainstream of ASEAN economic cooperation. It has also pointed the way for ASEAN's bankers to consult more closely both among themselves and with the region's traders and industrialists in more cohesive forums.
It is in this light that our leaders, by themselves and together with those of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, spent a great deal of time yesterday and today in addressing, deeply and comprehensively, the currency difficulties that the region is now undergoing. In their vision statement, they call for more intensive consultations on macro-economic and financial policies and closer cooperation on capital markets and in tax, insurance and customs matters as an integral part of ASEAN economic cooperation.
Sustainable development
Our leaders also tell us that, just as the trade and investment community can no longer act separately from the world of finance, economic development and economic cooperation cannot be undertaken apart from considerations of the environment. The recent Kyoto conference on climate change -- and the run-up to it -- have brought this home forcefully to all of us. It should be obvious by now that the neglect and degradation of the environment come at enormous economic cost. At the same time, the conservation of the environment comes with its own cost, too. A balance must be achieved. One thing is sure: Environmental considerations have a direct impact on business and industry in terms of tourism potential, the opportunities offered by the development of tourism facilities, the waste of natural resources, the loss of productive land and water, the morale and productivity of management and labor, health benefits for workers, and so on. These are in addition to our responsibilities to our community, to our countries, to the world, and to future generations.
ASEAN's environment ministers and officials have, over the years, formed the salutary habit of working together, of meeting regularly, of consulting closely with one another -- recognizing that environmental pollution knows no national boundaries and that, therefore, efforts to combat and prevent pollution and to preserve the environment entail trans-boundary cooperation.
However, traditionally, cooperation on the environment has been carried out under the ASEAN rubric of functional cooperation, as distinguished, in ASEAN categories, from economic cooperation. I believe that sustaining this compartmentalization is no longer wise, if it ever was.
In the ASEAN Vision 2020, our leaders call strongly for "fully established mechanisms for sustainable development to ensure the protection of the region's environment, the sustainability of its natural resources, and the high quality of life of its peoples." They envision "agreed rules of behaviour and cooperative measures to deal with problems that can be met only on a regional scale, including environmental pollution and degradation . . . ." They urge cooperation in energy efficiency and conservation and the development of new and renewable energy resources.
These are straightforward enough; but, in the text of the vision statement, the leaders also make even more explicit the linkage between development and the environment, attaching the word "sustainable" and the concept of sustainability to almost every mention of development or growth, stressing that development and growth must be sustainable as well as equitable.
The mandate is clear.
Human resources development
Equally clear is the leaders' message that, in the coming decades, human resources must be at the heart of economic development. ASEAN has recognized for some time that the economic future belongs to the knowledge industries -- and to nations that develop their peoples' capacity to build and cultivate those industries and stay competitive in them. For such industries, the quality of human resources is paramount.
Acknowledging this truth, ASEAN's leaders, in their vision statement, stress both the use of telecommunications and information technology for infrastructure, industry and business and their development through quality education and training. In their awareness of the centrality of science and technology to the industries of the future, the leaders press for the faster development of science and technology, including information technology, by establishing a regional information technology network and centers of excellence for the dissemination of and easy access to information. They also call for strong networks of such centers of excellence and of scientific and technological institutions.
One of the manifestations of the leaders' integrated approach to the ASEAN that they envision is their call for the use of the ASEAN Foundation to advance their economic agenda. The ASEAN Foundation was established yesterday in accordance with the leaders' decision at the Fifth ASEAN Summit in Bangkok two years ago. The activities intended for the Foundation encompass education, training, health, culture, people's social well-being, exchanges of youth and students, and cooperation among academics, professionals and scientists. But envisioning the use of the Foundation in economic cooperation is a vivid acknowledgment of the inseparability of economic cooperation from cooperation for what are normally considered to be social, that is, non-economic, purposes.
This brings us to yet another form of integration which our leaders envision for ASEAN. This is integration in its etymological sense; that is, an ASEAN made up of societies that are whole, an ASEAN that is itself a whole community. Here, I can do no better than to quote from the vision statement itself:
"We see vibrant and open ASEAN societies consistent with their respective national identities, where all people enjoy equitable access to opportunities for total human development regardless of gender, race, religion, language, or social and cultural background.
"We envision a socially cohesive and caring ASEAN, where hunger, malnutrition, deprivation and poverty are no longer basic problems; where strong families as the basic units of society tend to their members . . .; and where the civil society is empowered . . . and where social justice and the rule of law reign. . . .
"We envision our nations being governed with the consent and greater participation of the people, with its focus on the welfare and dignity of the human person and the good of the community."
In sum, our leaders see the ASEAN of the future as made up of societies that are open and caring, democratic and humane, pluralistic and participatory, blessed by social justice and the rule of law.
What do such societies and such an ASEAN have to do with the business sector?
What our leaders envision for ASEAN here are the elements of a stable society and a stable region, and stability is the first requirement of a sound business climate.
We come now to the final form of integration that our leaders wish to see strengthened, and that is the close collaboration between government and business. Declaring their resolve to "reinforce the role of the business sector as the engine of growth," the leaders, throughout their vision statement, specify measures that provide a hospitable political, social and policy environment for investments to be made, trading conducted and business carried out. These measures have to do with peace, security and stability, the liberalization of the economy, the facilitation of trade and investment, the protection of the environment, the development of human resources, and the building of a just, democratic and caring society.
It is in the light of this integrated partnership between government and the private sector that I see as most appropriate the private sector's participation in the observance of ASEAN's thirtieth year.
The private sector salutes ASEAN.
ASEAN, in turn, pays high tribute to the private sector.
