Prime Minister: Enhance ASEAN's self-reliance through promoting economic connectivity

On September 5, speaking at the plenary session of the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced that Vietnam will host the ASEAN Future Forum on rapid, sustainable, people-centered development.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends the plenary session of the 43rd ASEAN Summit. Photo: VNA

According to VNA, speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shared a general assessment of a volatile year 2023.

According to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, ASEAN continues to be a bright spot in economic growth, the center of free trade agreement (FTA) networks and the center of important regional cooperation mechanisms such as ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, East Asia Summit (EAS)...

To maintain “ASEAN stature” and be the “center of growth”, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the importance of enhancing ASEAN’s self-reliance through promoting economic connectivity, expanding the intra-bloc market, and facilitating trade and investment flows.

Accordingly, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested ASEAN countries to urgently remove bottlenecks and barriers in policies and institutions, maintain stability in the intra-bloc supply chain, and enhance the region's resilience to external impacts and challenges.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also requested that ASEAN Economic Ministers resolutely direct the review, upgrading and negotiation of new FTAs ​​between ASEAN and its partners, in order to create new development momentum for the regional economy.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that ASEAN needs to determine that ensuring peace and security in the region is first and foremost the responsibility and effort of ASEAN itself. To do so, ASEAN member countries must uphold the spirit of solidarity, independence, self-reliance and self-reliance; and this spirit must be demonstrated in both words and actions. Only then can ASEAN's role be truly promoted and receive practical respect from partners, especially major countries.

ASEAN welcomes partners to participate in regional cooperation, support ASEAN and join ASEAN in responding to common challenges. In the face of increasing strategic competition among major countries, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh especially emphasized that ASEAN needs to demonstrate steadfastness and solidarity so that partners respect ASEAN's central role, dialogue and cooperation in good faith, and comply with the principles and principles set forth by ASEAN mechanisms.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced that Vietnam will host the ASEAN Future Forum on rapid, sustainable, people-centered development in his speech at the plenary session of the 43rd ASEAN Summit. Photo: VNA

Aiming for an ASEAN with equal and sustainable development, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reaffirmed the core spirit of ASEAN with “people as the center, goal and driving force of the Community building process” to continue narrowing the development gap within ASEAN, especially in remote and sub-regional areas.

The Prime Minister highly appreciated the initiatives of the Chair country Indonesia to promote the digital economy, blue economy, food security, building an electric vehicle ecosystem and sustainable self-reliance, considering these as proactive and creative steps of ASEAN to serve the practical interests of the people.

In that spirit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced that Vietnam will host the ASEAN Future Forum on rapid, sustainable, people-centered development, to complement ASEAN's official forums and mechanisms, creating opportunities for broad exchange of ideas and initiatives for regional cooperation, contributing to building a resilient and sustainable ASEAN Community.

On the afternoon of September 5, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of ASEAN countries and partners attended the opening session of the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Forum (AIPF).

This is an initiative of Indonesia during its ASEAN Chairmanship year 2023, with the aim of unlocking potential and opportunities to enhance cooperation and connectivity for ASEAN countries and the Indo-Pacific region.

Comprising representatives from ASEAN countries and partners, from both the public and private sectors, AIPF discussed and developed strategic cooperation directions for the future, focusing on three main topics: Green infrastructure and resilient supply chains; Digital transformation and creative economy; Innovative sustainable finance.

Laodong.vn