Asean envoys told to boost GCC ties

Asean ambassadors serving in the region have been told to explore all channels to strengthen their diplomatic and business ties with the GCC countries.
Addressing ambassadors from Asean nations serving in Qatar at a roundtable meeting held at Grand Hyatt hotel yesterday, Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said the forum’s contributions have been widely acknowledged at the global level and added that Asean is seen as a forum that could considerably boost trade among nations in  South East Asia, East Asia and South Asia.
Pitsuwan, who previously served as the foreign minister of Thailand, is in Qatar to attend the ongoing Universal Postal Union’s (UPU) World Postal Congress at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) and an investors meeting at St Regis hotel today.
While recalling the strides made by Asean in recent years, Pitsuwan said other than the 10 member countries, Asean is also benefited from its intense co-operation with Japan, China and Korea. Australia, India and New Zealand are also supporting the forum’s activities in a big way, he said.
While speaking about the increasing relevance of the forum, Pitsuwan said apart from Barack Obama’s participation in the Asean meeting last year, the presence of the US and Russian envoys at the meetings, demonstrated how seriously the two countries are looking at the forum.
The Asean region, with a population close to 600 million could accelerate bilateral trade among the countries in the coming years. “Multinational corporations have already gone on record acknowledging that their trade within the region has increased enormously because of the strong co-operation between the member countries,” said Pitsuwan.
“The trade between the member countries which is only 25% of the $600bn strong business happening in the whole region, needs to go up considerably from the present levels,” said the secretary general. GDP-wise, Asean is the ninth largest economy in the world, he added.
“While trade among the NAFTA countries is between 50 and 55% of the total trade in that region, in the European Union, it is more than 68% at present,” he pointed out. The figures highlight the necessity of enhancing trade between the Asean members, added Pitsuwan.
At the briefing, the secretary general also informed that ongoing tensions in the Sino-Japan relations have prompted the latter to divert its manufacturing bases to Asean countries and the block stood to gain from such businesses.
The region as a whole, he said, has business investments worth $2.3 trillion and the average GDP growth of the Asean is an impressive 5.7%, at a time when many developed nations are showing stagnation in their economic activities. The remarkable increase in economic activities within the Asean nations has also shown that the region is home to one of the largest middle-class segment, which is growing at a phenomenal rate.
The secretary general also informed that Asean plus China, Japan and Korea had agreed to double the Chiang Mai initiative multilateral fund to $240 billion from the previous level of $120 billion during an Asian Development Bank (ADB) meeting. This he said, would give the member countries more financial sources to rely on, particularly during a difficult time.
Pitsuwan also requested the Asean ambassadors to unitedly work to attract investments from the GCC states in Asean countries, citing the growing economic development in the member countries.
“Now that the focus of the GCC states is shifting fast from US and EU countries, you need to work together to attract the region’s investments for the economic activities in Asean nations,” he said. “Our economic achievements need to be projected at appropriate levels in coming days,” added the ex-Thai foreign minister.
There are good investment opportunities in member countries in areas like health, tourism, education, telecom, logistics and transport, pointed out Pitsuwan.
The secretary general said the Asean ambassadors chapter in Qatar is among 33 such chapters worldwide.
All seven Asean ambassadors serving in Qatar, representing Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, attended the briefing convened by the Philippines Ambassador to Qatar Crescente R Relacion, who is the chairman of the Qatar chapter of the Asean ambassadors’ forum.
Besides Relacion, ambassadors Panyarak Poolthup (Thailand),  Ahmed Jazri bin  Mohamed Johar (Malaysia), Nordin Ahmed (Brunei Darussalam),  Le Hong Phan (Vietnam),   Deddy Saiful Hadi (Indonesia) and  charge d’affaires & head of mission at the embassy of Singapore Syed Noureddin attended the meeting.
Out of the 10 Asean countries, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia do not have their embassies functioning in Qatar.

Sourced: gulf-times