Call for ASEAN member nations to narrow income gap

ASEAN member nations have been urged to make serious concerted efforts to narrow the income gap between the rich and poor as a measure to gain a bigger success with the launching of the ASEAN Community by end of this year.

Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said ASEAN countries should also ensure that their peoples enjoyed their economic progress.

"We all need to strive to give better education and opportunities to our youth in the future," he said in his keynote address at the ASEAN Foundation Foreign Policy Study Group (FPSG) Roundtable Forum on 'ASEAN Community 2015 and Beyond' at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations here today.

Abdullah said these were imperative as ASEAN remained the central player in bringing together important countries and groups like China, Japan, India, the United States, the European Union and Russia in a constructive dialogue and engagements for peace and economic progress benefitting it and the surrounding regions.

He said that in terms of total trade, there had been a six-fold increase from US$430 billion in 1993 to US$2.5 trillion in 2013.

"Intra-ASEAN trade has increased seven fold, from US$82 billion in 1993 to US$609 billion in 2003. Extra-ASEAN trade has increased five fold, from US$348 billion in 1993 to US$1.9 trillion in 2003.

"It will be the start of a very interesting journey for all of us in ASEAN as we all hope to bring ASEAN closer together for our collective progress to benefit the peoples of ASEAN," he said.

Abdullah said ASEAN plus Three was integrating well, with China, Japan and South Korea making up for 42 per cent of the Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) flowing into ASEAN.

He said ASEAN member states were becoming the largest source of investment at 17.4 per cent.

Abdullah also said he hoped that the discussions taking place at the two-day forum and summary, together with the conclusions, would be submitted to the respective ministries of foreign affairs in the ASEAN capitals as valuable feedback.

"The FPSG has chosen very interesting and wide-ranging topics on ASEAN, ranging from the all-important ASEAN Community 2015, the Economic Community and Social Cultural Community, the South China Sea, Forced Migration and Trafficking, Human Rights and Democracy," he said.