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WORLD / Asia-Pacific |
ASEAN community expected to be formed in 2015(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-04 23:01 JAKARTA -- ASEAN member countries hope their aspiration to form an ASEAN Community can be realized in 2015, an Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry official said. "The ASEAN Community which is expected to materialize in 2015 will be based on three pillars, namely a security community, an economic community and a socio-cultural community," Antara news agency Tuesday quoted Arta Uli Tobing, head of the ministry's policies examination and development unit, as saying. Speaking at a gathering in Yogyakarta to make the ASEAN Charter better known among the public, Tobing said ever since the signing of the ASEAN Charter at an ASEAN summit last year, efforts to increase the Indonesian people's understanding about ASEAN had become a national program and mission. She said the principle of an ASEAN Community was the materialization of full integration in a prosperous and peaceful region marked by increasing interaction in the political and economic fields among the ASEAN nations. "In addition, the formation of the ASEAN Community is also expected to lead to the creation of a 'single market and production base region' with free flow of goods, services, capital, " she said. Tobing also said ASEAN's potentials as a single product and market area would increase free trade in the fields of goods and services, investment, capital and skilled workers. Meanwhile, Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X said in his written address which was read out by regional administration official that ASEAN countries had good economic growth, stability and security. "ASEAN is a potential market in addition to international dynamism towards regional integration," the Sultan said. "If the ASEAN Community is materialized, ASEAN countries will be the key players in international economy and politics in the competition with European Union, China, and East Asia," he said. |
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