ASEAN LUNCHEON TALK WELCOMING SPEECH BY
DR MOHAMAD RAMEEZ YAHAYA
MONDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2015
Greetings
Muy bueanas tardes a todos ustedes,
Por favor permítanme comenzar por dar la beinvenida al Almuerzo Seminario ASEAN organizado por la Embajada de Malasia en Santiago en conjunto con la Presidencia de Malasia de ASEAN dos mil quince (2015).
Me gustaría aprovechar esta oportunidad para entregar mis sinceros agradecimientos al profesor Manfred Wilhelmy Von Wolf de la Universidad de Chile y todos quienes hablaran hoy por su valioso tiempo al asistir a este evento
Please allow me to begin by welcoming all of you to the ASEAN Luncheon Talk, hosted by the Malaysian Embassy in Santiago, in conjunction with the Malaysia’s chairmanship of ASEAN 2015.
May I take this opportunity to convey my sincere appreciation and gratitude to Professor Manfred Wilhelmy Von Wolff of the Universidad de Chile, and all the speakers for spending their priceless time by attending this event.
Speech
2. With the theme of ‘Bridging the gap: ASEAN and the Pacific”, this talk is significant to promote closer ties between ASEAN Diplomatic corps in Santiago with Chilean community, comprises of captain of industries and public in general. I personally believe that this talk provides a platform for all of you to establish people to people connection for future ventures.
Ladies and Gentlemen
3. As you are aware, the ASEAN has emerged as the successful Regional Cooperation in the world. Since its establishment on 8 August 1967, the membership of ASEAN has expanded from only five (5) founding countries namely Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to ten (10) countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Prior to the establishment of ASEAN in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) was formed in 1961 consisted of the Philippines, Malaya and Thailand. The ASA aimed at to promote regional stability. Later, the ASA was replaced by ASEAN during the Bangkok Declaration, in which five (5) Foreign Ministers of the said countries signed the ASEAN Declaration in Bangkok, Thailand.
4. The main purpose of ASEAN in the 60s was to protect the regional peace and security from external threats. During the era of Cold War, it is vital to have a non-align entity to protect national interest by not supporting any blocks.
5. However, in the 70s, the objectives of ASEAN has moved beyond the political dynamism to a regional networking. The economic growth during the 70s had benefited ASEAN. During its first Summit in 1976 held in Bali, Indonesia, several business partnership agreements have been reached as well as the signing of a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. Later, in 1984, ASEAN has expanded its membership to six (6) member states i.e. Brunei Darussalam.
6. With the new member, ASEAN had portrayed itself as the important Regional Organisation. ASEAN had broaden its policy from political and non-align orientation to economic based cooperation. Then, the end of cold war in 1990s has given ASEAN an opportunity to emerge as leading voice on trade and security matters.
7. In 1995, ASEAN opened its membership to Vietnam followed with Laos and Myanmar in 1997. In the 90s, the focus of ASEAN was more towards creating alliances with other countries outside the region. It started with dialogue partners with several countries, mostly the countries which are interested to have partnership with ASEAN. In 1994, ASEAN established its ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The ARF comprises of 27 members i.e. 10 ASEAN Member States, the 10 ASEAN Dialogues Partners namely Australia, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States of America, including one ASEAN observer Papua New Guinea and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Chile has also extended its application to join the ARF and TAC.
8. In 2000, ASEAN had widen its scope, not only focusing on external allies, but also within the ASEAN itself. Later, in 2010, ASEAN initiated its new policy in establishing ASEAN community. Some of you may not have clear picture of what is ASEAN Community all about. The ASEAN Community is blueprint of Road Maps consisting of Economic, Political-Security and Socio-Cultural community. The main purpose of ASEAN Community is to create single entity of ASEAN Nation, instead of 10 nations. For example, even though you are Burmese, you should consider yourself as ASEAN rather than Burmese.
Ladies and gentlemen,
9. The recent 27th ASEAN Summit which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia served as the new face of ASEAN. The 27th ASEAN Summit outcomes are as follows:
i. The establishment of ASEAN Community by 31 December 2015;
ii. Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together;
iii. ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children;
iv. Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Ageing: Empowering Older Persons in ASEAN;
v. ASEAN Joint Statement on Climate Change 2015;
vi. Regional Framework and Action Plan to Implement the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Social Protection;
vii. Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Higher Education;
viii. Regional Plan of Actions on Elimination of Violence Against Women;
ix. Regional Plan of Actions on Elimination of Violence Against Children; and
x. Declaration on ASEAN Post-2015 Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Agenda.
10. During the 27th Summit, ASEAN had also reshaped its vision. ASEAN 2025 is a vision for all ASEAN community. ASEAN 2025 will serve as a dynamic community that can sustain high economic growth. Nevertheless, ASEAN never compromise with the security issues. Due to the current incident happened in France, the 27th ASEAN Summit also discussed the threat by extremism and terrorism. The Hon. Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia in his opening remarks during the 27th ASEAN Summit stressed the importance of ASEAN to find new solution in combating extremism and terrorism. He further highlighted that "It is the ideology propagated by these extremists that is the cause of this sadistic violence, and in this time of tragedy we must not lose sight of the fact that the ideology itself must be exposed as the lie that it is - and vanquished”.
11. In this regard, Malaysia, through ASEAN believes that the moderation is the key factor in creating safe and harmony among the civilisation. Therefore, the 26th ASEAN Summit held in Langkawi, Malaysia adopted the Langkawi Declaration on the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM). Through the GMM, conflicts could be solved peacefully. In fact, moderation or wasatiyah is a Muslim’s principle that no muslim could disobey.
Ladies and gentlemen,
12. At this juncture, I believe that all these efforts have brought to a productive result. Having stated the intra-trade figure of ASEAN in 2015 affected due to financial challenges, I believe that the trade amounts are far from its full potential. With a land of 4.4 million square km and 630 million population and nominal GDP more than USD 2.6 trillion, ASEAN can become the largest economy in the world.
13. What can I say further is that, the prosper-thy-neighbour, the Malaysian policy towards ASEAN has become a testament to the success of ASEAN Community. By sharing information, common values and goals had reduced a gap between ASEAN Member States.
Ladies and gentlemen,
14. We have come to the era where there is no boundaries. The internet made the information on our finger tips. Our communication become easy and easy from day to day. For this reason, there is no doubt that ASEAN could engage with other part of the world. The Pacific Ocean, for example has no become the main obstacle for ASEAN to trade with Latin America continent.
15. As ASEAN continues to move towards ASEAN Economic Community by end of 2015, the Pacific Alliance, the Latin America economic bloc also grows tremendously. This would provide ASEAN a great opportunity to trade between the two regions. In addition, during the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the Ministers of the Pacific Alliance met with their counterpart from ASEAN to further strengthen the link between the block. In May this year, Ambassadors of the Pacific Alliance had also convened meetings with Permanent Representatives of ASEAN in Jakarta to discuss issues pertaining to collaboration in various sectors such as energy, minerals, trade facilitation, innovation, logistics, infrastructure and Small Medium Enterprise. This cooperation will facilitate trade and investment flow between the two continents.
16. The cooperation between ASEAN and Latin America continent could also be translated into bilateral cooperation among the ASEAN Members and Latin America countries. For example, Chile had signed Free Trade Agreements with ASEAN Countries namely Malaysia in 2010, Vietnam and Thailand in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
Ladies and gentlemen,
17. Looking at the potential of having a mutual cooperation between ASEAN and Latin America, ASEAN could use its strength in geographical, economic and political stability to penetrate the Latin America market. The ASEAN Free Trade Area or known as AFTA which was initiated in 1993, would be the best tool to attract more foreign investors from Latin America. ASEAN needs more commodities for its internal consumption and economic development, whilst Latin America abundant of natural resources. Besides, the Latin America blessed with huge agricultural land and ASEAN needs food for its large population. This kind of demand and supply would benefit both regions.
18. I would say that, the ASEAN under the Chairmanship of Malaysia in 2015, has put in place the best mechanism to further strengthen the relation between ASEAN and Latin America across the Pacific Ocean. With ASEAN Vision 2025, AFTA, ASEAN Community and ASEAN Dialogue partners, I believe that these kind of initiatives would serve as a bridge to accelerate economic development and create impetus to further enhance the political, cultural and social ties between the Latin America and ASEAN. After all, we are all inter dependent and geographical distance should not be an excuse for not deepening the ties.
Thank you.