Policymakers need to listen to Asians

Pana Janviroj, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

At a recent international conference on the development of the Mekong region, there were persistent calls from businesses for one destination promotion, one visa, one customs system, one highway regulation and even one currency.

Also, the same environment standard was called for so that when a dam is built on the river upstream it should not undermine the biodiversity of the downstream part.

There is surely a commonality with these aspirations for the development of the Mekong Basin which involves six nations, similar to when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) first took shape.

But the policymakers meet a lot, talk a lot but act little on matters which demand political will and sacrifice for the good of the whole. So, too, the development of the Mekong, which has taken more than a decade to get going, but yet may take another 10 years before we witness a smooth flow of goods and services across national borders.

Regional integration is not something mutually exclusive to political leaders, businesses and environmentalists.

A new generation of people in Asia also ranks the issue on the top of their wish list. A web-based survey, covering participants and invites to the New Asian Leaders (NAL) retreat in Seoul organized by the World Economic Forum and Asia-based Global Leaders for Tomorrow reveals that Asia's new generation of leaders are very supportive of regional integration, and mindful of the region's need to decisively deal with nationalism, corruption and poverty.

Over 51 percent of survey respondents from India, Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan, said that the level of economic cooperation in Asia is "adequate, but more is desirable".

Over 37 percent said there is "too little cooperation" existing now. Only 8.9 percent say that the current level of cooperation is "just right".

Over 37 percent of New Asian Leaders view an extended Asia -- ASEAN plus Four, including China, Japan, India, and Korea -- as the most desirable model of economic integration, with 26.8 percent preferring ASEAN plus Three.

When asked about the obstacles to reaching a high level of economic cooperation among the countries, the New Asian Leaders identified national interest (46 percent) as being the primary problem, well ahead of historical, social or cultural differences or income disparities.

When asked what was Asia's greatest social challenge, they cited corruption (44 percent), poverty (39 percent) and the income gap (37.5 percent) as the leading problems.

In recent times, Asia-wide regional integration has probably made more ground in the north than it has in Southeast Asia.

The leaders of South Korea, Japan and China have been trying harder than at any time in their modern history to engage in confidence building towards greater cooperation. The pace has gathered since Japan and South Korea co-hosted the last World Cup. The same could not be said for ASEAN whose further integration has stagnated in contrast to the rise of China as an economic powerhouse.

A plan to set up an ASEAN Plus Three secretariats (with Japan, South Korea and China) in Kuala Lumpur at the behest of the Malaysian government was shot down by Jakarta with support from Bangkok.

Thailand's move from a regional "balancer" to initiator of the ambitious Asia-wide Asian Cooperation Dialog (ACD) with backing from China is another integration plan in the making, although it will dilute attention and resources which could be put into the Mekong Basin or ASEAN.

Workable regional integration is an art of visionary articulation and sacrifice especially by big and powerful nations -- as witnessed with the ongoing progress made by the European Union. Such courage is still absent among Asian nations and their leaders. But North Asian nations are doing better than the Southeast Asian nations. Even though the latter had a head start, they have neglected the opportunities presented in their own backyard.