UNCTAD chief suggests ASEAN’s single-mindedness

BANGKOK, January 18 (TNA) - A top UN trade official says a challenge for a planned integration into a single community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is to achieve the ‘single-mindedness’, particularly at a time when global economic conditions are volatile and unpredictable. Dr. Supachai Panitchapakdi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) told Thai News Agency (TNA) on the sidelines of the Bangkok CEO Forum on Tuesday that ASEAN member countries are to work in a common spirit to gain credibility for the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. Essentially, Dr. Supachai suggested, regional economic requirements need to be all met, in the areas of infrastructure, product standardization, tariff and customs procedures and even transportation and logistics systems. Dr. Supachai, who is a former Thai deputy prime minister and commerce minister, insisted although ASEAN has been given a lot of credit by the global community so far, the challenge on maintaining the single-mindedness and not to be side-tracked by certain ‘efforts’ to get Asia involved in wider-economic integration needs to be achieved. (TNA)