Your Royal Highness and Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like, at the outset, to extend my highest appreciation to H.E. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai for his presence at our Meeting and also his important opening speech, which has set forth directions for our discussions at this momentous juncture for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). I would like to express my warm congratulations to H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Foreign Minister of Thailand, on his election to the Chairman of this 33rd AMM, and my belief that under his dynamic stewardship our Meeting will be crowned with great success.

My sincere thanks go to the Government and people of Thailand for the hospitality and generosity extended to our Delegation and for the excellent arrangements made for our Meeting.

Mr. Chairman,

ASEAN’s economic recovery for the year 1999 and the first six months of this year has helped restore confidence of the international community in our dynamism. However varied the degrees of sustainability and pace of recovery from one country to another, and in spite of uncertainty abound, we have sufficient grounds to be optimistic about bright prospects of the regional economy. ASEAN economy, as predicted, is to grow by about 5 percent in 2000, higher than in 1999. This constitutes a magnificent progress compared to the negative growth rates of 1998. At the macro level, the economy is stable; stock market index climbed up markedly; the flow of foreign direct investment returned to the region. The bleak plights, caused by the regional financial crisis have now given way to renewed optimism. The ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Energy and Ministerial Meeting on ASEAN-Mekong Basin Cooperation Development recently held in Hanoi have reinvigorated functional cooperation projects. What seems to be paradoxical is that the crisis has strengthened even more solidarity and spurred more efforts for the opening up of economies. As a result, the countries in the region have to focus more on enhancing their respective comparative advantages and draw valuable lessons on golabization. Benefits that globalization brings to each nation depend greatly on its level of economic development and strategy.

Nowadays, Southeast Asia along with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea have been conducting regular meetings and dialogues, which aim to promote economic and commercial linkages on a larger scale. In the future, the area encompassing those countries is set to become a powerful economic space accounting for one thirds of the world population with a combined GDP of over US$ 7,000 billions.

As an integral part of the region, Viet Nam shares both the advantages and difficulties with its friends in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Despite the downturn caused by the adverse impacts of the crisis and natural disasters, the Vietnamese economy took off during the first six months. Industrial production has put a brake on a prolonged slowdown and begun to regain momentum in major products and sectors, in which FDI sectors accounted for the largest share. This achievement is attributed to the FDI promotion policies undertaken by the Government. Bumper crops have been harvested. Marked improvements were obtained in the commercial, tourism and service sectors.

The normalization of relations between Viet Nam. and the U.S has been completed with the conclusion of the Bilateral Trade Agreement between the two countries which is welcomed by public opinion in the region and the world for its practical significance of promoting bilateral and multilateral trade relations, thus making active contributions to the trend of recovery and sustainable development in the region. Most recently, the first securities trading floor in Viet Nam has officially been opened in Ho Chi Minh City – a noteworthy event in the course of reforms and development of a market economy in Viet Nam.

Having overcome obstacles and problems of each country and the whole region, today, we are delighted to see a more viable and stronger ASEAN-10. This is attributable to the untiring efforts that the Association has been and will be making in pursuit of the “ASEAN way” and in line with the orientations as envisaged by the ASEAN Leaders in Vision 2020 and the Ha Noi Plan of Action (HPA).

After quite a few ups and downs in history, ASEAN continues to strive for a Southeast Asia of peace, stability and cooperation which no longer suffers from division, prejudices and hostilities pitted against each other; but a strong and harmonious ASEAN endowed with its own identity, flexible approaches, and a long-term strategic vision. It can be said that solidarity, unity in diversity, in which each member’s identity is maintained and developed, are both ASEAN’s traditional features and an important objective that always need to be protected and respected. The Association’s time-tested fundamental principles and practices, first and foremost the principle of consensus and that of non-interference into each other’s internal affairs, have bound us together and been a source of strength. We have already formed increasingly significant political and economic relations with our Dialogue Partners and maintained our leading role in key security-political processes of the region, especially the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), helped attain certain progress in the dialogue process, and helped seek immediate and long-term solutions to disputes among countries through peaceful negotiations. Along that line, the establishment and effective functioning of the High Council of the TAC is extremely necessary. The Code of Conduct (COC) being formulated between ASEAN and China would make practical contribution to enhancing mutual understanding and mutual trust among peoples as well as to regional peace and security.

We have every reason to firmly believe that outstanding or newly-emerging issues need to and will be effectively resolved in the “ASEAN way”. From the perspective of development, ASEAN could hardly become a powerful economic entity if the development gap among its Member Countries keeps widening. In our view, this is a key issue, requiring joint efforts to quickly narrow such a gap. We would:

• Contribute to improving economic security of each Member Country and for the Association.
• Help make full use of comparative advantages in natural resources, human resources, market, geo-economic position and technology of Member Countries, making Southeast Asia an attractive region.
• Turn ASEAN into a dynamic region in economics, trade, investment, finance, tourism, services in Asia and the Pacific, contributing to harmonious development and poverty reduction, which is a key reason for various complex socio-economic issues in each country as well as our community as a whole. To this end, higher priority should be given to the Projects of the Mekong Subregion Development and the East-West Corridor.
  
  

Results attained fecently have been encouraging, though not yet up to our expectation. Objective assessment of reality should be made, regular review undertaken, appropriate measures worked out, and resources mobilized for basically realizing the HPA in 2004 as scheduled. Formulating annual reports of the ASEAN Standing Committee on the basis of reviewing the implementation of the HPA is a step in the right direction. We should also double our efforts to mobilize Dialogue Partners to participate in as well as support the implementation of this important ASEAN Plan. In that spirit, activities such as the Development Cooperation Forum held by the ASEAN Secretariat in May 1999 were of practical significance. We have also been making active preparations for the Summit to be held in the forthcoming November in Singapore.

Mr. Chairman,

ASEAN’s organization, mechanism and working style for the past 3 decades and more have helped the Association record many major achievements. At the threshold of the new Millennium, together with a creative and dynamic Secretariat, we should review the effectiveness of our organization and if necessary, propose adjustments to simplify procedures, reduce expendituce so as to focus on dealing with matters of more substance. Proposals to remove the distinction between formal and informal Summits and to reform the PMC process prove to be appropriate. Efforts in this direction should be further encouraged in the coming period.

The ASEAN Leaders and peoples share an aspiration of building our Association into a concert of Southeast Asian nations, outward-looking, living in peace, stability and prosperity, bound together in dynamic partnership and in a community of caring and mutually respected societies. With an ASEAN-10, we would be able to moot such an aspiration as it is the will of both today and tomorrow’s generations of ASEAN.

Thank you for your attention