Remarks by Rodolfo C. Severino, Secretary-General
of at the inauguration of the ASEAN Foundation
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,Jakarta, 14 July 1998

Your Excellency Ali Alatas, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia,
Your Excellency Witjaksana Soegarda, Director-General, ASEAN-Indonesia,
Your Excellencies members of the Board of Trustees of the ASEAN Foundation,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:

I am extremely pleased and grateful to have been invited to this inaugural ceremony of the ASEAN Foundation.

There is, I think, nobody happier than the Secretary-General of ASEAN over the birth of the foundation. For I believe that the foundation could be just the right partner for the ASEAN Secretariat and the other official ASEAN bodies in the pursuit of some of ASEAN's purposes, purposes that have received less attention than other areas of ASEAN's concern, purposes that have been almost neglected over the years.

I refer to the cultivation of an awareness of ASEAN among its own peoples and in the world beyond, to the promotion of closer relations among the peoples of ASEAN, and to the development of ASEAN's considerable human resources.

Today, the ASEAN region is beset by economic difficulties that arise essentially from a crisis of confidence. In the past, ASEAN members achieved record rates of economic growth on account mainly of the world's confidence in their strengths and in their future. An important element in this confidence was their membership in an association that fostered regional peace and stability, open economies, an integrating market, policies of growth, and the development of human skills. ASEAN's strengths and ASEAN's future are now being called into question, and it is essential for the world - above all, ASEAN's own people - to know about what ASEAN and its members are doing to return their economies to the path of stability and growth. This is crucial to restoring the confidence that is necessary for economic vitality and growth. Here, the ASEAN Foundation can take as one of its primary tasks the mission of making ASEAN better known among its people and in the world at large.

Close ASEAN cooperation was vital to our region's stability and prosperity during the years of rapid growth. It is even more necessary today in moving ASEAN back to its old strength, its old stability, and its old surging economic expansion. Beyond the economy, ASEAN cooperation is essential for dealing with the growing regional problems than can be met only with regional solutions - trans-boundary pollution, including the debilitating haze from forest fires, trans-national crime, the trafficking in drugs and in women and children. Yet, such cooperation can be achieved and endure only if the people themselves are linked together in a true community, if they feel as a community, if they are convinced that they have a stake in the ASEAN community. This, again, can be a principal mission for the ASEAN Foundation - the fostering of a sense of community among ASEAN's peoples through the intensification of people-to-people relations.

All sectors of ASEAN have recognized the critical importance of the development of the region's human resources for ASEAN's future growth and success in an increasingly competitive world. We all acknowledge that the industries and economies of the future will be more and more dependent on human knowledge and human talent. Moreover, the development of the ASEAN citizen's full potential is a vital part of his or her fulfillment as a human being. The ASEAN Foundation can make the consolidation of cross-sectoral human-resources development programs as part of its mission.

All this is embodied in the very first purpose and objective of the ASEAN Foundation, as laid down in its Statute: "to promote greater awareness of ASEAN and greater interaction among the peoples of ASEAN as well as their participation in ASEAN's activities ... through human resources development that will enable them to realize their full potential and capacity to contribute to the progress of ASEAN...."

This, in turn, fulfills the mandate of ASEAN's leaders.

At the Fifth ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in December 1995, they declared: "ASEAN shall raise awareness of ASEAN among its peoples, in particular the younger generation, and to instill in them a consciousness of the spirit and identity embodied in ASEAN, by harnessing all appropriate modes and technologies in the media and communications, education and through greater interaction among its peoples."

As early as 1976, at the First ASEAN Summit in Bali, they proclaimed: "Member states shall vigorously develop an awareness of regional identity and exert all efforts to create a strong ASEAN community."

At their Fourth Summit in Singapore in 1992, the heads of government declared: "The ASEAN member countries shall continue to enhance awareness of ASEAN among the people in the region ...."

In the ASEAN Vision 2020 statement which they issued at the Second Informal Summit last December in Kuala Lumpur, they proclaimed: "We envision the entire Southeast Asia to be, by 2020, an ASEAN community conscious of its ties of history, aware of its cultural heritage and bound by a common regional identity."

And, in their Third Summit in Manila in 1987, the heads of government agreed that "human resources constitute a major element in the future development of ASEAN and called for the development of an intelligent and productive work force," a conviction that has been repeatedly affirmed and re-affirmed since then.

These are part of the mandate that our leaders have issued to all of us, including the ASEAN Secretariat. It is now also the mandate of the ASEAN Foundation, which the leaders created for this purpose.

It is in this light that we in the ASEAN Secretariat heartily welcome the ASEAN Foundation as a valued collaborator and vital partner. We pledge the Foundation, its Trustees, and its Executive Director and his staff our fullest cooperation. For the Foundation's mission is part of ours, too.

Finally, I wish to pay tribute to the Government of Indonesia, particularly the Department of Foreign Affairs under the leadership of His Excellency Ali Alatas, for initiating this idea of an ASEAN Foundation, an act of ASEAN statesmanship that promises to be a prophetic contribution to ensuring that ASEAN will thrive and prosper in the coming century.

I wish the Foundation success.