I have just returned from the 2nd East Asia Forum which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 5-6 December. This Forum with its theme of “Towards an Integrated East Asia Community” is very important given that the vision of one East Asia is fast gaining support.

Combining the markets of Southeast Asia and the giant economies of Northeast Asia – or in numerical terms, over 2 billion consumers with a combined GDP of over 7 trillion dollars indeed deserves attention and action.  For the Philippines, this will mean direct access to what could be the world’s largest economic bloc, in terms of trade, tourism, investments and employment opportunities both in our country and abroad.

The Philippines fully supports this notion, and no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo exhorted the members of the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Vientiane a week ago when she said ”An enlarged East Asian Bloc can secure not only the future of the developing and less-developed countries in ASEAN, but also the future of China, Japan and Korea as economic leaders in the Pacific century.” She continued “They (Plus 3 countries) must actively participate, as we must all participate, towards the formation of an East Asian Regional Economic Bloc,” and “The innate strength and potential of an economically integrated East Asia will depend not only on their governments, but more heavily on their entrepreneurs and businessmen, and how they embrace the larger universe of trade.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Badawi in his keynote speech at the Forum advocated – “the task before this Forum is not to contemplate the East Asian community as a theoretical construct.  Your task is to identify what needs to be done in concrete terms to achieve an integrated East Asian region.  What are the building blocks that need to be put in various places, in the direction of a fully-grown and flourishing East Asian community? We must trust our judgment that this process is not merely inevitable.  It is also our duty to make the process irreversible.”

By and large, the vision of one East Asia is commonly shared by both leaders.

In my speech on “Developing an East Asian Identity: Challenges to Overcome” during the session on Political and Security issues, I identified two main challenges in establishing an East Asian Identity – first the problem of defining what common thread could be used to tie-up the disparate countries, cultures and political structures in the region, and second, the problem of deciding what aspect of integration should be the main focus.

As a means to overcome these challenges, I cited the different plans of action that ASEAN has adopted to pursue closer integration both within ASEAN and with the 3 Dialogue partners, these being:

            1. ASEAN Security Community Plan of Action, which details collaboration in various fields to help ASEAN member-countries bring regional peace and stability to a higher level;

            2. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Plan of Action, of which the Philippines is the proponent, to provide a social agenda to the economic and security goals of ASEAN;

            3. Vientiane Action Programme (VAP), which is a successor to the Ha Noi Plan of Action, a six-year roadmap that unifies and cross-links the strategies and goals of ASEAN in the medium term;

            4. ASEAN-China Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity, which lays out cooperation in areas of mutual interest to ASEAN and China, including sub-regional growth areas, the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area and the South China Sea;

            5. ASEAN-Japan Joint Declaration for Cooperation in the Fight Against International Terrorism, which builds upon the commitment of ASEAN and Japan to enhance cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism; and

            6. Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation Partnership between ASEAN and the ROK, which outlines broad strategies of action including the establishment of an ASEAN-ROK Free Trade Area in 2009.
 
Finally, I also added “Though we may view each other through different cultural lenses, the strength of our cooperation has nevertheless shown the way forward and set the standard for the substance of future ASEAN Dialogue partner arrangements.  It is incumbent upon us to overcome the challenges that we face in our pursuit of East Asian integration and development of an East Asian identity.”

The East Asia Forum brings together the countries of ASEAN plus Three, (China, Japan and South Korea). This forum was participated in by representatives from government, business and the academe with Mr. Jose Concepcion and Dr. Carolina Hernandez speaking for their sectors. END
 
 
 
 
 

/jay