ASEAN planning proposed

ASEAN planning proposed

BANGKOK (AFP): Thai Deputy Prime Minister Amnuay Virawan yesterday urged all ASEAN states to start planning for 2020 so that the regional grouping could move smoothly into the next century.

Amnuay said that Thailand, like Malaysia before it, had drafted a master plan which would "look ahead, not just at the next five years ... but at the next 25 years until the year 2020."

He noted that Thailand and its neighbors were entering into many commitments, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) and assorted Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreements which would take them well into the next century.

"We should plan ahead," he stressed, adding that Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had indicated that he would work on a long-term plan for his own country.

"I encourage all ASEAN countries to devise their own plan for the year 2020 to see how we can move together during the next 20 or 25 years," Amnuay said.

ASEAN currently groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Burma, Cambodia and Laos are expected to join by the turn of the century.