Your Majesty
Your Royal Highness
Your Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

This has been a traumatic year for ASEAN members.

When we met in Kuala Lumpur last year, the regional economic crisis has already hit us. But no one predicted its ferocious course or its duration. The regional landscape has since changed drastically.

All our economies have been badly damaged. Our wealth has been decimated. Millions of people have lost their jobs. The political fallout has fractured the affected societies.

The crisis has spread beyond Asia to Russia and South America. The EU and the US have been affected by a shrinkage of Asian demand for their exports. The risk of a global slow-down is there. Any slow-down will in turn retard Asia's recovery.

But however dismal the immediate future looks, ASEAN cannot lose its bearing and long-term optimism. The results of 30 years of rapid economic growth are real. Our foundations are much stronger. Our people have acquired some technological and management skills. We have in varying degrees integrated ourselves with the global economic system.

ASEAN was an important factor that made for our success. ASEAN was the glue that contained, managed and stabilised what would otherwise have been a turbulent and divided region. ASEAN created conducive conditions for growth, minimising uncertainties and boosting investor confidence.

But events in the past year have taken the shine off ASEAN. Some of our dialogue partners are quietly questioning ASEAN's future. Some of them are taking us less seriously than before. They believe that ASEAN has been exposed as ineffective. Key ASEAN members are now weaker while ASEAN cohesiveness has been loosened by bilateral strains.

These perceptions are not entirely without basis. At this Hanoi Summit, we must reflect soberly on what ASEAN means for each of us, how we can help each other to overcome our economic challenges, and how to position ASEAN for the rebound which must come sooner or later.

In Singapore's view, ASEAN is as relevant now as when it was first formed. Thirty years of ASEAN has ingrained in us the habits of consultations, consensus building and working together. This ASEAN glue must be strengthened to hold together a more disparate ASEAN.

ASEAN needs the combined weight of its 500 million people to have its voice heard in international fora, to exercise influence in the international arena, and to compete as an economic entity against other regional economic blocs like Mercusor, EU, and NAFTA. ASEAN enables its individual members to punch above its weight.

Yet, it is not enough to simply assert our belief in our own value. We must convince others of our relevance to them. We are expected to produce tangible proof that our confidence in ourselves is grounded in reality.

ASEAN's high international reputation was bouyed by our fast-growing economies. Our immediate priority is therefore to demonstrate convincingly that we are seriously coming to grips with our present economic problems. If we show that we can take the right policy decisions, and are prepared to reform where necessary and whatever the pain to vested interests, we will slowly regain international confidence. We should not be distracted from this priority.

If we cannot do so, market confidence in our economies and in ASEAN will be further eroded. Potential investors will stay away, jeopardising our economic recovery.

Let us have no illusions about where we stand if the Hanoi Summit does not live up to international expectations. If we cannot convince the world that we are united in our determination to repair our economies, it could lead the major powers to turn away from Southeast Asia towards other more interesting regions.

The Hanoi Plan of Action is a good start. It sets clear and firm direction for ASEAN's economic future. So also are the various other economic cooperation agreements that we will conclude. But this is only the first step in a long journey. The journey must be completed, the sooner the better.

We can accelerate the pace in implementing our AFTA commitments. In the midst of our economic difficulties, this will be a powerful signal that we will keep our markets free, that we will remain plugged into the global economy, and that we are determined to move forward with liberalization.

We can liberalize beyond the expectation of the market, in financial services, in information technology, in civil aviation and other areas under the ASEAN Framework of Services. Globalization is an inevitable trend. It confers huge benefits. But it also carries a price, particularly for countries which are not ready for global competition. Free trade and competition between ASEAN members within a loosely Integrated ASEAN economic area will prepare us for the stronger winds of globalisation.

ASEAN members can help each other within the limit of their own capabilities and resources. This will strengthen ASEAN unity.

I am very disturbed by the thought that because of the economic crisis many ASEAN members will lose a few valuable years in educating their children. The loss will be greatest in the case of the brightest who may miss a chance for higher education. These are not just family or individual set-backs. Not maximizing a generation's potential through lack of resources for education will seriously cripple the long-term growth prospects for the entire region. To help alleviate the problem, Singapore will set aside S$12 million under the Singapore Cooperation Programme to provide about 30 undergraduate scholarships a year for ASEAN students over the next three to four years for study in Singapore. Places will be allocated by open competition. We will announce. the details in due course. We would expect the students to return to serve their home countries.

What Singapore alone can do is necessarily limited. But we hope to be a catalyst of ideas and actions for ASEAN members to help one another, and for ASEAN members to work with third countries to help ASEAN.

Your Majesty
Your Royal Highness
Your Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

We have a heavy responsible ahead of us. I have every confidence that under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, we will take practical decisions to set ASEAN on the path to faster recovery and restore international confidence in our region. May I now conclude by expressing my deepest appreciation to the government and people of Vietnam for the arrangements they have made for this Summit and for the hospitality they have extended to my delegation and me.

Thank you.