KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia, as Asean chairman in 2015, has the opportunity to provide thought leadership on how to be an economically-
integrated community, says former United States diplomat.
David Carden, who was former US ambassador to Asean, sees Malaysia as a uniquely positioned nation, which is able to showcase its own stage of development of a more regional approach while juggling underlying issues of a pluralistic community.
Malaysia has also made moderate approaches in adressing internal issues, he added.
“It will be the responsibility of Malaysia to move the conversation forward next year as the chair, and in doing so, to try to accomplish as many of the elements of integration as it
can in order to realise the aspiration of Asean to have the Asean Economic Community (AEC) come into being at the end of 2015,” Carden said in an interview with Business Times.
Malaysia has benefited from participating in global economy in ways some Asean members have not achieved to a certain degree and it possesses the advantage of leading the economic integration across borders.
Carden also urged Malaysia to seize the opportunity to identify challenges in the AEC.
“One of the challenges faced by Asean will be the actual implementation of the AEC. There will be many things that happen inside the border of the Asean member states in order to accomplish the objectives of the economic community,” added Carden.
He also believes that effective Asean economy integration can only be fulfilled with the involvement of
individuals of all
backgrounds and sectors.
“We need to have those in that conversation across all
sectors, young people, religious leaders,
business leaders, students, political leaders, civil society, so that the problem most importantly is deeply understood,” Carden said.
AEC aims to reach the goal of regional economic integration by
2015 with key characteristics to include a single market and production base, a highly-competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy.