Understanding On ASEAN Need To Be Promoted - Anifah
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 (Bernama) -- Understanding on ASEAN, especially among school children, students and youth, should be promoted to instill and inculcate a sense of ASEAN identity and feeling of "ASEAN-ness", Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said Monday.
"I'd like to encourage that further enhancement of the level of awareness and knowledge among the people, on ASEAN, be undertaken since even in the Malaysian community, it is still very low," he said in his speech at the 43rd ASEAN Day Dinner, here which was read by the his deputy, Senator A. Kohilan Pillay.
In view of this, he urged the ASEAN-Malaysia National Secretariat to be committed in carrying out more vigorously outreach programmes, both in urban and rural areas, to educate the public at large on the significance and importance of an ASEAN community.
Malaysia, as the founding member of ASEAN, was fully committed to ASEAN Community building process and thus determined to ensure the relevance of ASEAN in the years ahead, he said.
"We are confident that the Master Plan of ASEAN Connectivity will provide the roadmap to facilitate connectivity in ASEAN to pave the way towards accelerating the realization of ASEAN Community by 2015," he said.
In his speech, he also said that ASEAN needed to enhance its economic cooperation with its dialogue partners.
"I would look forward to seeing more active discussions undertaken regularly to further deepen the economic cooperation beyond tariff liberalization to include non-tariff reduction, mutual recognition arrangement on services, harmonization of standards and conformance," he said.
He also said that private sectors should also actively play their role in bridging markets of ASEAN to become a single market and production base by connecting themselves to form a network or forging smart alliances for greater productivity and competitiveness.
Also present at the dinner were members of parliament, as well as heads of diplomatic missions in Kuala Lumpur, government officials, think-tanks, non-governmental organizations, private sectors, such as ASEAN Business Advisory Council and East Asia Business Council, academicians and media.
Earlier Monday, Malaysia celebrated the 43rd anniversary of ASEAN through a flag-hoisting ceremony at Wisma Putra, a event held annually to pay tribute to the wisdom and vision of the its establishment.
ASEAN member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
sourced from BERNAMA