KL Declaration On ASEAN 2025 Tops Laos' Agenda As 2016 Chairman

By Nabilah Saleh VIENTIANE, Dec 21 (Bernama) -- Laos, which is gearing up to assume next year's ASEAN chairmanship, has placed the recently-signed 'Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together' on top of its agenda, said Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Alounkeo Kittikhoun. "As the chairman for 2016, leading the implementation of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2025 will be our top priority to move the region forward. "On the very first day of taking the lead, we will need to ensure that all frameworks and adopted documents are well-implemented for the benefit of the over 600 million people in the region," he said. He was speaking to Bernama recently, on the sidelines of an ASEAN Journalists Workshop on covering ASEAN's culture and traditions, organised by the Laos National ASEAN Committee for Culture and Information. Promising that Laos would work hard towards making the 10-member bloc a "people-centred" region, Kittikhoun said the country's upcoming chairmanship brought a special meaning as Laos would assume the leadership from Malaysia, where the historical launch of the ASEAN Community and adoption of ASEAN Community Vision 2025 took place. Laos has chosen the theme, 'Turning Vision into Reality for a Dynamic ASEAN Community' for its 2016 chairmanship. Laos, which was admitted as ASEAN's full member in July 1997, was ASEAN Chair in 2004. Kittikhoun also said that next year's 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits here would be held back-to-back on Sept 6 to 8, instead of the normal practice in around October or November. "Due to the US Presidential Election in November and after discussions with all ASEAN country leaders and dialogue partners, we have agreed to still have two summits but back-to-back," he said. He said as ASEAN chair next year, Laos would also be focusing on narrowing the development gap among all ASEAN member states, which still existed by enhancing the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) framework. "We will make sure that ASEAN will have a new phase of IAI because this framework will further help narrow the gap in and within the ASEAN," he said, noting that this would also ensure that benefits from the ASEAN Community were shared among all ASEAN member states. Launched in 2000, the IAI is aimed at providing support and accelerating integration of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, the ASEAN's newer and lesser developed member states. However, Kittikhoun said that despite the excitement of hosting the regional bloc's summits next year, Laos was also facing the real challenge with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by year-end. "For a less-developed and landlocked country like Laos, our small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) will face 'fierce' competition. In order to grab the benefits of AEC, our SMEs will really need to improve their business so that they can compete successfully," he said. In this aspect, he said meetings and seminars conducted between the Laos Government and private sector and good mechanism between the two parties could help Laos to penetrate the bigger ASEAN market. "We have come up with a mechanism where the private sector can express and come up with proposals and in return, the government will provide the framework that the private sector would like to have internally, in order to compete," he said. Once set up, the AEC would have a combined Gross Domestic Product approaching US$3 trillion, emerge as a single market and become the seventh largest economy globally. On Laos' preparations for the chairmanship, Kittikhoun said it was now ready logistically, with the construction of a few new hotels expected to be completed in time for the ASEAN summits and related meetings. --BERNAMA