ASEAN launches recovery effort

By Kornelius Purba & Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

HANOI (JP): ASEAN leaders set out on Wednesday to cushion the social impact of the regions crisis by establishing safety-net and poverty-eradication programs along with "bold" economic measures to hasten economic recovery.

The social costs of the Asian crisis were among the main points stressed in the 34-point Hanoi Declaration signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders at the end of their two-day summit.

"We recognize that the financial crisis has a social dimension, with the poor and vulnerable segments of our society being the most adversely affected," the declaration said.

"We will ensure that efforts to safeguard the interests of the poor form an integral part of our reform effort".

The two social programs were also stipulated in the adopted Hanoi Plan of Action (HPA), an extensive 24-point document which sets out broad medium-term initiatives aimed at achieving the development goals of ASEAN's Vision 2020.

The leaders attending the organization's sixth summit in Hanoi were Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesia's President B.J. Habibie, Laotian Prime Minister Sisavath Keobounphanh, Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe, Philippine President Joseph Estrada, Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and the host, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is still waiting for his country to become a formal ASEAN member, attended as an observer.

The safety-net action plan in the HPA will be managed by a special task force that will work out a regional scheme of social protection and function as a forum for mobilizing resources from ASEAN dialog partners, the private sector and international financial institutions.

The HPA also underlines the need to exchange information in the field of human rights in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

"We have reaffirmed the need for cultural development to be in harmony with social development, rural development in harmony with urban development, with greater focus on poverty alleviation, job creation and comprehensive development of the human factor," Khai, who chaired the summit meetings, said in his closing statement.

AFTA

To help spur economic recovery, the leaders adopted their ministers' proposal to speed up the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) deadline from 2003 to 2002 through a yearly staging process.

The six "older" members of ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- would by 2000 reduce tariffs to between zero and 5 percent on 85 percent of products subject to AFTA requirements.

By 2001, 90 percent of products would be included and all by 2002.

Furthermore, those six countries would by 2000 levy tariffs of zero to 5 percent on 90 percent of total tariff lines which make up 90 percent of trade among them.

This would result in the bulk of intra ASEAN trade carrying tariffs of no more than 5 percent.

ASEAN leaders also embarked on an ambitious attempt to attract foreign investors to the region in the next two years by providing special incentives such as income tax exemptions and 100 percent foreign equity ownership.

These economic goals were issued in a separate document by the leaders titled "Statement on Bold Measures".

Khai boasted that with the results of the summit, "we send to the international community a strong and clear message that ASEAN would continue its outward looking policy".

Without specifically mentioning China, Taiwan and the four ASEAN states involved, the leaders also underlined the need to settle the overlapping claims in the South China Sea through peaceful means and adhere to international laws.

"We have sufficient grounds to say the Hanoi Summit is a bridge joining two centuries," Khai said.

Bolkiah, who is to chair the next Summit in 2001, said "despite the difficulties in the region the ASEAN spirit well and alive".

"We share a common understanding on the gravity of the crisis... We know that there are no soft options. The only way to pull ourselves out of the crisis is to press on with economic reforms and regional economic cooperation," he said.

Habibie kept a relatively low profile during his three-day stay here, holding just two bilateral meetings -- with Bolkiah and Hun Sen.

He and his large entourage left just one hour after the final meeting ended.