Over the past year, ASEAN has beefed up its intra-block cooperation on all political, security, economic, social and cultural fronts, as well as broadened and deepened its cooperative ties with non-block members, especially dialogue partners.
At the 11th ASEAN Summit on Dec. 12 in Malaysia, leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) inked the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Charter, which emphasizes the importance of having an appropriate ASEAN institutional framework for the realization of the ASEAN Community.
The declaration says that the charter will reaffirm principles and goals contained in ASEAN's milestone agreements, which include promotion of community interest for the benefit of all ASEAN members, narrowing the development gaps among the member countries, and continuing to foster a community of caring societies and promote a common regional identity.
Mainly by strengthening substantial intra-cooperation, the members have taken more steps toward a single ASEAN market and production base by 2020. The leaders, at the summit, expressed their strong determination to see deeper integration of economic sectors, speedier service liberalization, and rapid realization of one-stop customs.
The leaders even touched upon the possibility of advancing the target date for the realization of the ASEAN Economic Community from 2020 to 2015 with some flexibility for the newer members after deciding to speed up the liberalization of trade in services not covered in the 11 priority integration sectors by 2015, and urging ministers responsible for tourism and air transport to integrate the sectors at an even faster pace.
"ASEAN has strengthened its economic integration over the past year. It has intensified efforts to remove boundaries and barriers ... The ASEAN Single Window is of great help," the group 's General Secretary Ong Keng Yong told Xinhua recently.
On Dec. 9, the block's members signed in Malaysia an agreement to establish and implement the ASEAN Single Window (ASW), which is designated to accelerate the clearance of imports at national and regional level by electronically processing trade documents, harmonizing product standards and technical regulations, and mutually recognizing test reports and certification.
ASEAN wants to cut customs clearance time for any single transaction to 30 minutes from current 3-4 days via the agreement' s implementation. The ASW will be fully implemented by 2008 at the latest for Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, and by 2012 for four newer members, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
On the political and security fronts, ASEAN members have agreed to promote political and security dialogue and cooperation as well as confidence building in the Asia-Pacific region under the framework of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
At the 12th ARF Meeting in Laos in July, the forum's members stressed the importance of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. Concerning maritime safety and security, they noted the four key areas for future cooperation: multilateral cooperation, shipping and port security, operational solution to, and application of technology for the issue.
ASEAN has also stepped up cooperation on transnational and non- traditional security issues, including terrorism, illicit drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, money laundering, cyber crime and immigration. At the 5th ASEAN ministerial meeting on transnational crime in November in Vietnam, delegates discussed the establishment of police liaison officers in the members' capitals.
On the socio-cultural front, ASEAN has fostered cooperation and coordination on such specific fields as health, labor and employment, social welfare and development, youth, women, rural development and poverty reduction, education, environment, disaster management, science and technology, and culture and information.
While centering on intra-ASEAN cooperation, the regional grouping also keeps on pursuing closer relationship with its dialogue partners and other regional organizations based on equal partnership and mutual respect.
The ties between ASEAN and its dialogue partners have become closer and more substantial with an increasing number of specific cooperation projects and initiatives being implemented. To date, 19 projects on information technology, small- and medium-sized enterprises, standards and quality conformance, environment, entertainment, and logistics management have been approved by ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea.
ASEAN has played an increasingly bigger role in East Asia cooperation. At the 1st East Asia Summit on Dec. 14 in Malaysia, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the East Asian region had already advanced in its efforts to realize an East Asian community through the ASEAN+3 process. The Plus Three countries reiterated their support for the block's role as the major driving force in East Asia cooperation.
Among the Plus Three countries, China has become an increasingly more important partner of ASEAN. At the 9th China- ASEAN summit on Dec. 12 in Malaysia, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao put forward five initiatives for closer ties between the two sides, namely forging stronger bond of friendship, putting in place a planned framework for relations, endeavoring to build the China- ASEAN Free Trade Area, identifying new priority areas of cooperation, and vigorously promoting personnel exchanges.
New priority areas of cooperation should be identified, and transportation, energy, culture, tourism and public health should be made the five new key areas of China-ASEAN cooperation, the premier said, noting that the all-around tariff reduction process regarding the free trade area has started, and negotiations on agreements on trade in services and on investment are under way.
He said China-ASEAN trade continues to grow and is expected to exceed US$120 billion this year. Latest statistics have shown that bilateral trade between China and ASEAN surged by 25 percent in the first half of 2005 to nearly US$59.8 billion as the country continued to be the blocks' 4th biggest trading partner and vice-versa.
This year, ASEAN has seen steady progress in economic cooperation with other partners, including India, Australia and New Zealand. At their consultations in September in Laos, economic ministers from the block's member countries and the partners centered their discussions on speeding up the establishment of free trade areas between ASEAN and each of the partners.
The 11th ASEAN Summit with the theme "One Vision, One Identity, One Community" and the 1st East Asia Summit are of significance, giving a boost to cooperation and relations within the grouping and between it and its partners. They also prove that East Asia cooperation, in which ASEAN acts as a major driving force, is becoming closer and more substantial and entering a new stage of fine development.