by 
H.E Ong Keng Yong
the Secretary-General of ASEAN
at the
International Economic Forum
“Russia – Asia Pacific Region Nations: Towards Strategic Economic Partnership and Civilization-to-Civilization Dialogue”
Moscow, 9 October 2006

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is indeed my pleasure to be here at this important Forum and I thank you the organiser for inviting me to deliver a keynotes address in the timely and crucial Forum, which brings together participants from various backgrounds, such as the government authorities, private business, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as scholars. The Forum, I believe, would provide an opportunity for participants to share views and discuss various issues that affect the Asia Pacific region.

In this Forum I will highlight the latest developments in the relationship between ASEAN and Russia, and share my views on how ASEAN and Russia could work together for peace, security and prosperity in the region. In doing so, I will elaborate on the economic integration process which ASEAN is undergoing.

ASEAN - Reliable Partner in Asia Pacific 

As an outward-looking organisation, ASEAN has maintained close relations and cooperation with its 10 Dialogue Partners (Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, the EU, ROK, New Zealand, Russia, and the US). ASEAN’s dialogue relations have been shaped by a combination of domestic, regional and global factors.

In political and security sphere, ASEAN has earned an international recognition as a force of peace and security in the Asia Pacific region. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which was established in 1995 with ASEAN as the driving force, has become an important political and security forum in the region. With its 26 participating countries, the ARF is a forum to foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common concern and interest in the region.

ASEAN’s efforts in maintaining regional peace and security have received a major acknowledgement with the accession of a number of countries to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), which is an ASEAN’s code of conduct for inter-state relations and interaction. Australia, China, India, Japan, Mongolia, PNG, New Zealand, Pakistan, ROK and Russia have acceded to the TAC. While Timor Leste has expressed its readiness to accede to the TAC, the EU and France have also indicated their interest to come on board the TAC.

In the economic realm, the rapid economic growth of China brings about challenges and opportunities to the economies of the region. In addition, India is experiencing economic boom and Japan is growing again. The good news to ASEAN is that these three economic powers consider ASEAN as their strategic partner.

In 2000, China was the first partner to offer ASEAN a free trade agreement (FTA).  This has quickly stimulated India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea to follow suit. In fact, talks between ASEAN and these countries to move toward and to establish FTAs are now well underway. ASEAN is determined to remain competitive and maintain close economic linkages with all Dialogue Partners. In addition to the FTAs negotations, the newly introduced TREATI (Trans-Regional EU-ASEAN Trade Initiative) would pave the way for an enhancement of ASEAN-EU economic partnership. The TREATI does not preclude a potential FTA. The ASEAN-US Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement (TIFA) would be a basic document to deepen and broaden trade and investment between ASEAN and the US. The ASEAN-Russia economic partnership has also reached a significant point with the signing of the ASEAN-Russia Economic and Development Cooperation Agreement which I will deal with it in the subsequent section.

ASEAN and Russia: Going Forward

ASEAN acknowledges Russia as one of the key players in the Asia Pacific region. ASEAN sees Russia as a strategic partner as Russia is one of the five recognised Nuclear Weapon States, a member of the G8, a permanent member of the UNSC, and a member of many other major regional and international organisations. This strategic importance brought Russia to the status of a full Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in 1996. 

Since the establishment of dialogue relations, we have developed and expanded our relations to cover a wide range of areas including political and security, economic and functional cooperation. Russia is also a partner in the broader Asia Pacific region through the ASEAN Regional Forum. The strong focus of ASEAN-Russia dialogue relations on political and security relations is evident. 

We value Russia’s active engagement and participation in ASEAN, which contributes to greater dialogue, interaction and exchange of views on key regional and international issues affected in the region.  We believe that ASEAN-Russia political and security cooperation is expected to strengthen due to the convergence in interest to ensure a peaceful region to pursue economic development, and to combat the menace of terrorism and transnational crimes. 

While political and security cooperation has produced satisfactory outcome, there is a need to do more to improve trade and investment between ASEAN and Russia.

The signing of the Agreement between the Governments of the Member Countries of ASEAN and the Government of the Russian Federation on Economic and Development Cooperation in December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur provided us with a stronger impetus in our resolve to further enhance our economic relationship – broadening and elevating it to a higher of level of dynamism.  

We have taken this one step forward when we developed the 10-year Comprehensive Programme of Action between ASEAN and the Russian Federation (2005-2015), where we drew up the possible joint actions and measures, specifically for economic cooperation. Potentially, both sides have much to gain, given the diversity and vastness of our experiences, by sharing information, know-how and best practices and pursuing joint collaboration work in the field of mutual interest to ASEAN and Russia.

We have established a good foundation and we have the momentum to keep us moving forward. Our challenge now is how to build on this and move the process further and closer to some positive outcomes and concrete benefits to our peoples.

We could achieved this through joint action or collaboration work on areas of common interest, as well as through technical assistance in areas where expertise could be shared to assist, facilitate and strengthen capacity of the other party, particularly in fields of specific interest and would help in our development process.

The areas where we see good potential for economic cooperation between ASEAN and Russia are on trade and investment, industrial development, small and medium-enterprises development, energy development and security, tourism development, and science and technology.    

Let me highlight some areas, which can be the focus of our initial cooperation work.   

• Energy – cooperation in various fields of energy such as areas of exploration, production, transportation and utilization of oil, gas, and their refined products; and development, promotion and utilization of new and renewable/alternative energy resources.
• Trade, Industry and Investment – industrial cooperation including joint investment in selected and high technology industries such as heavy engineering equipment, machine tools, automotive, electric appliances and agricultural machinery; exchange of information related to trade and investment, and conduct of trade and investment business fora.
• SME – institutional capacity building in business support services (e.g. organizing SME fora and match-making workshops, setting technical and consulting support, and export promotion and support services); and human resources development at the level of enterprises
• Science and Technology – Cooperation in research, innovation and application of emerging and advanced technologies such as in mineral and natural resource utilization, combating communicable diseases, and environmental protection initiatives.
• Tourism – Cooperation in the promotion of national tourism products by means of international tourism exhibitions; tourism development through capacity building in and sharing of experiences in sustainable tourism development, etc.

ASEAN Economic Integration

Let me say something about ASEAN economic integration. We aim to establish an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. Earlier, we set the goal at 2020. This means we are confident to have a single market for the ten economies of ASEAN earlier than later. There will be free movement of goods, services, investment and skilled professionals inside ASEAN. Lower cross-border transnational cost will be realised with such a single market and we believe ASEAN will be a competitive place for trade and investment. ASEAN’s GDP grew at 5.5% in 2005. We are expecting this growth to reach almost 6% this year.

Conclusion

Talking, buying and selling of goods, and signing agreements and MOUs are the characteristics of the interactive world we know.  In the knowledge-based economy of the new global village, exchange of information and innovation of the way we work is the key to advance mutual benefit.  The balance of interests and a win-win solution determine how our cooperation moves ahead.  ASEAN and Russia have built up a stable foundation of partnership in the past 10 years.  The prospect of strong progress is good. With the ASEAN Economic Community, more opportunities are available and Russia can benefit from this development as Russian business expands its involvement in Southeast Asia.