ASEAN delegates pass Hanoi draft on wealth disparity

ASEAN delegates pass Hanoi draft on wealth disparity

HANOI (AFP): ASEAN delegates on Wednesday ended three days of
talks and passed a draft resolution aimed at resolving the
growing wealth gap between member countries, officials said.

A communique issued after the meeting said the Hanoi
Declaration on ASEAN was passed but details would not be released
until a later date.

The document will be put to the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting
of foreign ministers scheduled for July in Hanoi for final
ratification.

Wealth disparity has become a byword among ASEAN countries
seeking to protect and improve their standards of living. The
group's economies range from First-World Singapore to dirt-poor
Cambodia.

Delegates were tight-lipped about the contents of talks and
media were barred from approaching officials.

"Wealth disparity is the most sensible topic to be discussed,"
one diplomat said.

Its focus includes infrastructure, human resources and
information technology and members have opposed any linkage
between trade and labor standards.

Their position has been made worse by a global economic
slowdown which was expected to impact on Asian exports just as
many regional economies were climbing out of a recession brought
on by the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.

In Kuala Lumpur last week, labor ministers at their annual
meeting advocated "multi-skilling" of workers to keep them
employed amid recent downsizing by multinational corporations.

They wound up their two-day meet urging the International
Labor Organization (ILO) not to punish Myanmar over forced
labor, saying it was doing all it could to stamp out the
practice.

Ministers noted that Southeast Asia's traditional cheap labor
advantage was being eroded in the era of new economies and said
the region must work on upgrading skills.

This should also become part of a strategy to cope with
economic downturns, they said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. They
were expected to also consult with the Asian Regional Forum,
encompassing 23 countries, over the next two days.