Welcome remarks by H. E. Rodolfo C. Severino,
Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
at the ASEAN Development Cooperation Forum

ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, 6 May 1999

Your Excellency Minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry of Indonesia,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen:

I thank you all for joining us today and welcome all of you to the ASEAN Secretariat.

We are gathered here to identify how we in ASEAN and our dialogue partners, the international financial institutions and others in the international community can collaborate in advancing ASEAN's purposes in these critical times.

ASEAN today faces challenges unprecedented in our history as an association, indeed in the history of Southeast Asia.

ASEAN countries are buffeted by the wrenching adjustments that they have had to make in dealing with the current global and regional economic upheaval. They have had to try mightily to cushion their peoples from the full impact of that upheaval. At the same time, they have had to work to maintain their competitiveness in a globalizing world. They have had to grapple with the regional threats posed by the destruction of the environment, trans-national crime and the international trafficking in drugs. And they have had to devise new ways to foster peace and stability in the context of the emerging configuration of power in East Asia.

ASEAN's response to these challenges is clear. That response is to strengthen the solidarity of Southeast Asia. Less than a week ago, Cambodia formally joined the ASEAN family, making its solidarity firmer. ASEAN's response is to deepen its economic integration, to accelerate the completion of the ASEAN Free Trade Area, to move forward the liberalization of trade in services, to create the ASEAN Investment Area, to bind the region through road networks and gas pipelines and electricity grids. ASEAN's response also is to tighten cooperation in protecting the poor, in health and education, in science and technology, in environmental protection, in the struggle against the debilitating scourge of illicit drugs.

In the face of difficulty and challenge, regionalism is the only way. There is no alternative. This has been the insight and the decision of ASEAN's leaders.

This is no mere declaration of intent on their part. In Hanoi last December, ASEAN's leaders decided on concrete measures to give substance to their insight and carry out their decision. These measures are tied together in the Hanoi Plan of Action.

Some of the measures in the HPA are mutual commitments of national action. Others embody collective decisions for collective action. Still others constitute cooperative, regional actions that are open to collaboration with others.

If ASEAN is anything, it is not inward-looking. It is outward-looking. It is open to trade, economic links and security dialogues with others. It welcomes cooperation for development with other countries and groups of countries and with other international organizations.

It is for this purpose, the purpose of cooperation for development, that we are gathered here today. This forum provides the opportunity for us to identify, together, areas for such cooperation.

These areas are clearly indicated in the Hanoi Plan of Action. The major significance of the HPA is that it gives a firm coherence and definitive direction to ASEAN cooperation - ASEAN's cooperation within itself and with others. Where coherence and direction were lacking in the past, the Hanoi Plan of Action has now supplied them for ASEAN and its partners to follow.

The areas for cooperation that we are considering today can be grouped under three general headings:

• economic recovery and greater economic integration;

• mitigating the social impact of the economic crisis; and

• the environment and human development.

Some of these areas entail the training of people. Others call for urgently needed studies. Some involve the formulation of action programs. Others require various forms of technical assistance.

We have distributed in advance some project briefs to you. They indicate what we in the Secretariat and ASEAN's committees and working groups have in mind in pursuit of the leaders' mandate from Hanoi. These are just examples; they are by no means exhaustive. We hope to discuss them and other possible activities with you later today, tomorrow and beyond.

I wish to thank especially Minister Ginandjar for honoring us with his presence today. We thank him for consenting to give the keynote address at this forum. Minister Ginandjar is at the core of ASEAN economic cooperation, a pillar of ASEAN economic integration. His presence in this forum signals the support of ASEAN's political leadership for our endeavor in the next two days. So does the presence of ASEAN's ambassadors in Jakarta and of representatives from ASEAN capitals.

Your presence manifests your countries' and your organizations' interest in what ASEAN is doing and the value that they place on collaboration and partnership with ASEAN. We in ASEAN thank you for that.

With the Hanoi Plan of Action as our guide, we in this forum will be charting, in a coherent and purposeful way, the course of our collaboration and partnership for years to come.