Mr. Chairman,

Your Royal Highnesses,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great honor to attend the 33rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the beautiful city of Angels. May I thank the Government and People of Thailand for the gracious hospitality accorded to my delegation and for the excellent arrangements made for this gathering.

This Meeting comes at a time when ASEAN as a whole has regained strength and confidence after having overcome the worst economic and financial crisis that hit the Southeast Asian Region in the past three years. I would like to sincerely join my colleagues to congratulate His Excellency Dr. Surin Pitsuwan and His Excellency W. Nguyen Dy Nien on their elections as Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively of the 33rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, I am confident that with their rich experiences, our meeting will be crowned with success.

We are now in the age of globalization which can be a powerful and dynamic force for strengthening cooperation and accelerating growth and development. However, globalization presents not only opportunities but also risks and challenges, It has increased the vulnerability of the developing and least-developed countries, which am in the process of being integrated into the world economy. For this reason, to cope with those risks and challenges, we, in ASEAN, have to make every possible efforts to ensure that the whole ASEAN is marching forward on the same.

Since the 32nd AMM in Singapore and the 3rd Informal Summit in Manila, we have identified a number of opportunities, and challenges arising in the midst of the age of globalization and the revolution of the information technology brought by this new millennium, ASEAN should gather its resources to materialize the ultimate goal of the Vision 2020. In this sense, our commitment is to continue to exert greater efforts to transform the Hanoi Plan of Action into reality. ASEAN’s unity, cohesion and solidarity are of great importance that will keep ASEAN relevant, strong and focused on realizing the goals set by the Founding Fathers of the Association, namely a prosperous, equitable and caring society.

Mr. Chairman,

Your Royal Highnesses,

Excellencies,

Ladles and Gentlemen,

The process of regional integration, will not succeed unless there is a balance of development within ASEAN. This should. be addressed in a timely manner to ensure the global competitiveness of ASEAN. I am of a view that it is essential to set up strategies and programs to eliminate or substantially reduce such a disparity within ASEAN as soon as possible. In doing so, we will be able to integrate the economies of ASEAN as a whole, to cope with the globalization phenomenon.

In this regard, the, following efforts should be focused :

First, Mekong Basin Development. The Development will help not only the development Of The riparian countries, but also the whole region, and will pay a great contribution to the economic integration within ASEAN. For this purpose, I wish to urge the Steering Committee an ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation to be convened as soon as possible. The setting up of an ASEAN-Mekong Feasibility Fund is of the utmost importance for feasibility studies of all projects in connection with the Mekong Basin development.

Moreover, I am of a view that to accelerate the Mekong Basin Development, a Mekong Basin Development Fund (MBDF) to implement the Mekong Development Projects should also be set up. Certainly, the realization of these projects will need further supports from our Dialogue Partners, in particular Japan which has a1rcady promised to help in this regard.

Second, Human Resources Development (HRD). HRD is the key to ensure sustainable development, in particular for the new members. Thus, ASEAN must make efforts to establish as soon as possible the ASEAN Human Resources Development Fund as agreed upon at our last Ministerial Meeting in Singapore and endorsed by the Informal Summit in Manila last November.

During this same meeting in Manila, Japan has pledged to help Mekong Basin Development, Human Resources Development, and to eliminate the gap in ASEAN. The Republic of Korea and China have also made their promises to help, for those reasons, I think we should make every efforts with our dialogue partners to transfer these objectives into concrete actions.

Mr. Chairman,

Cambodia, like other nations around the Asia Pacific, is interested in a stable environment. The regional and international security architecture can be characterized as overall stable, thus facilitating political dialogue and economic cooperation, enhancing mutual understanding and trust and.

The stable relations existing between the major powers should be maintained and, further strengthened to help ensure mutual trust and confidence, which constitute the vital foundation for peace and security.

The stability of the US-China-Japan triangular relationship is a vital factor underpinning regional security, and by extension, regional economic development. ASEAN welcomes the series of exchange of visits at different political levels which have helped smooth out any potential source of misunderstanding.

We have also observed with keen interest, the rapid diplomatic movements during the last few months in the Korean Peninsula, Cambodia welcomes the holding and the outcomes of the recent Summit between the two Koreas and the accession of the DPRK to the ARF. This positive, development would contribute to a further improvement of the security environment in Asia-Pacific.

We must also recognize that we are living in an era of global changes. Although ASEAN economies are on the road of recovery, the challenges for ASEAN now is to maintain political stability and to ensure sustainable socio-economic growth. For this purpose, it is important that we make every effort to realize all current economic integration initiatives of ASEAN such as. the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), the ASEAN Investment Area (AIA), the ASEAN Industrial Cooperation (AICO) scheme, the liberalization of the services sectors etc.

However, Intra-regional liberalization and globalization open not only opportunities for free Movement of people, materials and goods, necessary and good goals in themselves, but also provide an increased scope for cross-border crimes and illegal activities including money laundering, drug and human trafficking, smuggling of artifacts as well as dumping of toxicant hazardous wastes, To be pro-active in our efforts to contain and prevent such crimes, ASEAN need to strengthen our individual and regional capacities to deal with these issues and move rapidly towards harmonizing our laws to enable both prevention and law enforcement.

In this 3rd Millennium, when globalization, more than ever, poses constraint on us, ASEAN should strengthen its structures, so that it can be more assertive economically and politically. We, in ASEAN, should try our best also to ensure ASEAN step forward with unity and common purpose on all important worlds matters.

In order to increase the role of ASEAN in the international arena, ASEAN should try to have one voice and one stand on all International issues.

Mr. Chairman,

Your Royal Highnesses,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Although there are challenges ahead posed by the world today, I am convinced that ASEAN will further develop into a more resilient, robust and even more influential regional body, Our unity within diversity is strong, foundation for further success in our common journey leading to a bright future for ASEAN.

Thank you