Southeast Asia’s prospects for economic integration are good but any single currency is many years away, the president of the Asian Development Bank said Saturday.The 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has already achieved “substantial economic integration,” Haruhiko Kuroda said in an interview in the Philippines on the sidelines of bloc’s annual summit.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked Singapore to support Vietnam’s initiative to continue narrowing the development gap among ASEAN members for a strong ASEAN community.The request was made during a meeting on Jan 12 between PM Dung and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, on the sidelines of the 12th ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the Philippines.
People’s Daily Online — Services agreements expected at summit
Experts have called for China to use the weekend’s ASEAN summits to balance and harmonize trade relations and maximise the benefits of economic cooperation.China and the ASEAN are expected to sign a series of service trade agreements when they meet on Sunday.
That summit follows Saturday’s ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) summit.
Until January 16, trade ministers from East and Southeast Asia will meet in Cebu, in the Philippines, for a series of summits originally planned for September 10-14, but canceled after a typhoon hit the popular tourist destination.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urged the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to initiate concrete projects and programmes that would flesh out the theme of the 12th Asean Summit: “One Caring and Sharing Community”. The three-day 12th Asean Summit formally opened yesterday morning at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa.His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam was the first to arrive after the Philippine President to the opening of the summit and was followed by other leaders in alphabetical order.
Mayor stops Cebu rally by himself - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
Hundreds of demonstrators intent on marching right into the grounds of the convention center where leaders of Southeast Asian nations launched their annual meeting yesterday were stopped from doing so by the timely intervention of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.Osmeña, known for being brutally frank and for refusing to back down from unpopular decisions, prevented a violent confrontation between the police and the protesters who were marching towards the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) in defiance of a police ban on rallies.
16 Asian nations to adopt accord on boosting energy security - INQUIRER.net,
Leaders of 16 nations from South Korea to Singapore are expected to agree to boost Asia’s energy efficiency and combat climate change by seeking new fuel sources, particularly biofuels, according to a draft document seen Saturday.The Cebu Goals on East Asian Energy Security is to be signed Monday by the heads of government at the East Asia Summit, which brings together the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their six dialogue partners — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.
With the signing of landmark agreements on migrant workers, security, trade, and its own charter, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is on its way to becoming a “formidable bloc” in the world.“With the ASEAN moving forward towards firm accords on its own charter, security, overseas workers, and trade, the prospect for the region becoming a formidable bloc in the world is well within our reach,†Arroyo said in a statement.
Korean TV soaps impress ASEAN leaders - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
As much as they would want to stick to the more serious matters on the agenda here, heads of state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations apparently could not help but convey a shared sentiment of their people to South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun: Those Korean ”telenovelas” rock!The matter unexpectedly came up at Sunday’s meeting between the Asean and their top guest from Seoul, according to Ambassador Vic Lecaros, spokesman of the 12th Asean summit.
China, Japan and SKorea hold summit
China, Japan and South Korea have held their first summit together in two years, finding common ground on North Korea and on mending their own fractured relations.In an unusual joint statement, the three appeared to have shored up a relationship that was strained by complaints over the previous Japanese government’s attitude to the country’s notorious World War II past.
But new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made better relations a priority since taking office in September, and his talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun were hailed by all sides.
This is the first time since new Japanese PM Shinzo Abe took the post that there is a high level meeting between the three.
China, Japan, South Korea find amity in ASEAN | Reuters.com
Senior diplomats from China, South Korea and Japan met on Friday and agreed their relations had taken a decided turn for the better, highlighted by coordinated efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.“Relations between the three countries are showing fresh impetus for development,” Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said, after the fraught times of a year ago when Japan was barely on speaking terms with its neighbours.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to arrive at the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit Jan. 14 to hold multilateral talks with South Korea and China, Japan’s Kyodo news reported Jan. 13. North Korea’s nuclear program will be high on the agenda when Abe meets with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun. Abe will wrap up his visit Jan. 15 by attending the second East Asia Summit, which comprises the 10 ASEAN member states plus Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.
South Korea and the Philippines agreed Saturday to strengthen cooperation in the economic and trade fields, South Korea’s presidential office said.President Roh Moo-hyun, who arrived here earlier in the day, held a summit with his Philippine counterpart Gloria Arroyo, who is hosting the annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders at a five-star seaside resort in Cebu.