Welcome Remarks
His Excellency Ong Keng Yong
Secretary-General of ASEAN

“Rethinking ASEAN!” Forum
The ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta

7 August 2007

His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Indonesia

Excellencies, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
        the Minister of Trade, 
                   and the Minister of Information and Communication
                                   of the Republic of Indonesia

Distinguished Ambassadors
The Governor of Jakarta
Professor Philip Kotler
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the ASEAN Secretariat this morning for the “Rethinking ASEAN!” Forum.

ASEAN will turn forty tomorrow. By all accounts, the Association has had a good run over the past four decades. The region has enjoyed peace and relative prosperity. We managed to pull through the financial crisis of the late 1990s and worked closely together to meet unexpected challenges like the SARS outbreak and the tsunami disaster. We have even sparked a few new initiatives beyond the region – the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit come to mind.

Obviously ASEAN has been doing things right. If so, do we need to “Rethink ASEAN”?

The truth is that even as far back as 2003, the ASEAN Leaders had already seen the importance of “rethinking ASEAN”. They were not interested in keeping to the status quo. They were keen to make ASEAN an even stronger and more effective organisation.
 
Three important developments have come from this rethink.

First, ASEAN started to give stronger focus on building the ASEAN Community.

The ASEAN Leaders believe that a strong ASEAN Community is the way to secure the region’s future and have moved ASEAN from loose cooperation to closer integration in some key areas. The deep roots of cooperation and mutual respect would help maintain peace and stability in the region while an ASEAN that functioned as a single market and production base would be globally competitive. Community building is the top priority for ASEAN. Indeed at the 12th ASEAN Summit in the Philippines this past January, the deadline for establishing the ASEAN Community was brought forward by five years from 2020 to 2015.

Second, ASEAN has committed to establishing the ASEAN Charter. 

Just last week, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers considered the First Draft of the ASEAN Charter and it is expected that the finalised Charter would be ready for the 13th ASEAN Summit in November 2007. This will be an important milestone for ASEAN. The Charter will formalise the establishment of ASEAN as a full-fledged inter-governmental organisation, moving it from its current state as a loosely-organised regional entity. With the Charter, Member Countries in ASEAN will have a framework to operate efficiently under a rules-based environment and ASEAN decisions and agreements will become legally binding. The Charter will be instrumental in making ASEAN more effective as ASEAN steps up the pace of regional integration and community building.

Third, ASEAN has recognised the importance of having a stronger “people-orientation”.

The ASEAN Community is not just a vision for government officials. After all, the efforts of government officials are only one of the contributing factors to the success of ASEAN. The support of the people of ASEAN is crucial. But the people will only back the vision if it is people-oriented and if they believe that their lives would be better and their future brighter because of the ASEAN Community. To this end, ASEAN have put in place initiatives that improve the well-being of the ASEAN people, be it in promoting economic development, improving regional cooperation in disaster management or holding activities such as people-to-people exchanges that allow the direct participation of the people.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are clearly more areas where ASEAN can do better with fresh insights. This forum organised by the ASEAN Foundation and the Philip Kotler Center for ASEAN Marketing is a good opportunity for open discussion and new ideas on how we can take ASEAN forward. 

And as we think about the ASEAN we would like to have in 2015, we are privileged today that we will soon be hearing from His Excellency, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia. He is one of the ASEAN Leaders who has played a key role in moving us towards establishing a strong and dynamic ASEAN Community. We look forward to his insights.

Thank you.