Leaders call for greater use of English

Leaders call for greater use of English

SINGAPORE (AP): Southeast Asian nations, which boast hundreds of local languages, must work to make English the lingua franca of the region, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said on Friday.

Goh said the leaders of the Association of Southeast Nations had discussed the need to increase the use of English - the main language of business and the Internet in much of Asia.

"Its importance cannot be overemphasized," Goh told reporters, adding that competing as a group in the globalized economy required a common language.

At their two-day summit in Singapore, ASEAN heads of government are struggling to keep their troubled region attractive to investors.

In the past, efforts to achieve closer economic integration have been hampered in part by the linguistic divide between the 10 nations.

The use of English is common in former British colonies such as Malaysia or Singapore, where it is the language of government and schools.

But in other countries, such as Francophone Indochina, it is patchy at best. And in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony where hundreds of local languages compete with the official Bahasa Indonesia, English is hardly spoken.

ASEAN's leaders are now determined to make English a unifying force of their grouping and an instrument that would facilitate faster integration into the world economy.

Goh has frequently insisted that in the global economy, the use of English gives businesses a big advantage over non-English- speaking competitors.