Policymakers need to listen to Asians
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.