ASEAN told to unite to face Islamic extremism, China's power
ASEAN told to unite to face Islamic extremism, China's power
Bernice Han, Agence France-Presse, Singapore
China's emergence as a global power and rising Islamic extremism are the twin challenges facing Southeast Asia's future as a regional bloc, Singapore Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo said on Monday.
"Global terrorism is one major challenge uniting us in ASEAN," Yeo said in a luncheon speech organized by the American Chamber of Commerce here.
"The other major challenge is the rise of China," he said, pointing out the Chinese economy is attracting 40-50 billion US dollars worth of investments yearly while inflows into Southeast Asia "have been languishing."
"This is forcing us to take a hard look at our own competitiveness," Yeo told the gathering.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has no alternative but to speed up efforts in forging closer intra-regional trade ties or it would be unable to compete against China, Yeo said.
"ASEAN countries now have no choice but to work towards closer regional economic integration," Yeo said.
"Without the free movement of goods, services and investments in Southeast Asia, we will lose out to China in many sectors because China is by itself a free trade area of 1.2 billion people," he said.
"If, however, we are able to make Southeast Asia a common economic space, with the strengths that we have, we can hold our own against China, stake out our own areas and benefit from China's prosperity," Yeo said.
Even as ASEAN seeks to forge closer ties with China through a proposed free trade pact and latch a ride on the world's most populous nation ascendancy, Yeo said the region must still maintain ties with other major countries.
"As we do not wish to be in a tributary relationship to China, ASEAN's most sensible strategy is to move closer to Japan, the U.S., India, Europe and Australia, even as we move closer to China," he said.
"We are therefore seeing a healthy competitive dynamic where ASEAN seeks closer economic relations with everyone, and everyone wants ASEAN as a friend," Yeo said.
Turning to terrorism, Yeo said "this is a complex problem" which ASEAN must deal with effectively if the region is to remain prosperous.
How Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population and the biggest ASEAN member, deal with terrorist-related activities at home will hold the key to the region's future prosperity, he said.
"If Indonesia takes comprehensive measures to root out extremism in the archipelago, the economy will recover and the prospects for Southeast Asia will brighten considerably," Yeo said.
In this respect, it was important that major countries like the U.S., Japan, Europe, China and Australia support Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Southeast Asia has been tagged as a second front in the global war against terrorism.
"Our common objective in ASEAN must be to make the entire region inhospitable to global terrorists by denying them of safe havens, and to do this in concert with actions taken elsewhere in the world," Yeo said.