 Dear Prime Minister, dear Deputy Prime Minister, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome on behalf of the World Economic Forum. My name is Philipp Rösler. I am here managing director and responsible for the regions. I am very happy to welcome you all here today because we have the most interesting topic for today. It's about ASEAN. And as you can see, I look not really European. I was born in Vietnam, but I grew up in Germany, so in Europe. That means I know, I understand both ASEAN as well as the European Union. And that's the reason why I am so happy to have such a distinguished panel today because if we are talking about ASEAN, we will talk about a single market starting with December 2015. We are talking about 600 million people, 600 million customers. We are talking about jobs, inclusive growth. But much more important, and that is what I learned from Europe and its challenges, you need more than numbers and figures if you talk about such a beautiful project like ASEAN. ASEAN is not only bringing countries together. It's much more than having only a single market. It's a vision. It's not only a project and for this kind of vision to motivate people to work together on this vision, you need passion. Passion in the business community as well as passion on a political level. So I'm very happy to have such a podium because then we can now discuss ASEAN, ASEAN's future, what will happen in 2015 and 2016 and in the follow-up and what about passion of the politicians to motivate 600 million people to make ASEAN reality, to put the vision the fathers and grandfathers have had into reality. So that's the reason why we are here and why we as World Economic Forum so happy to have you all here and again welcome on behalf of the Forum and it's now my pleasure to head over to today's moderator. Philip, thank you very much indeed. Philip Ross, ladies and gentlemen, managing director of the World Economic Forum. Thank you for making this possible. Ladies and gentlemen, ASEAN for us in Asia is a reality, is an important and defining element of what happens in our daily lives and our daily activities. 2015 is going to be a pivotal year for ASEAN. The chairmanship of Malaysia is expected to be a dynamic and fruitful one taking us to December where the ASEAN Economic Community will finally be established. We have with us a distinguished panel of political leaders and we will begin our panel today talking about the policy aspects and the national considerations of some of the major ASEAN countries here today and we'll get a five-minute conversation and speech from each of our leaders here today to outline what their priorities are and what their thoughts are about what ASEAN is doing, where ASEAN is going and what 2015 will deliver for the nations and the people within. With us we have today the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Vietnam, Pan Bin Min. We also have from Thailand the Deputy Prime Minister, Priyaton Devakula. And for a Malaysian perspective here, unfortunately the Prime Minister of Malaysia who was to represent the country and present his vision for Malaysia's chairmanship had to leave us today at the last minute because of the unfortunate demise of the King of Saudi Arabia. So we have a very able replacement for the Prime Minister. That's his Minister in Charge of Economic Priorities has joined us today. Abdul Wahid Omar will outline the thoughts of the Malaysian chair. We'll begin though with the Prime Minister of Cambodia. Please, sir, your thoughts on ASEAN in 2015. And I would ask if you could, keep to five minutes. I'll try and keep you to time. Thank you. Thank you. Excellencies, Chairman, Moderator. We're privileged and pleased to be invited to deliver remarks on the benefits of ASEAN integration in a new global economic context at this World Economic Forum which has become a very influential platform for the discussion of regional and global issues aimed at ensuring sustainable and inclusive development. Excellencies, Madam Ladies and Gentlemen, in the midst of deep-reaching political, social and economic change in Asia, ASEAN has experienced rapid progress achieving a robust economic growth over the past decades. This in itself is a significant contribution to the improvement of living standards of the more than 600 million people living in 10 ASEAN member countries. The planted establishment of the ASEAN agronomic community, AAC, by the end of 2015 with the view to realizing the potential of the free flows of goods, capital and skilled labor, we provide great opportunities for ASEAN to transform itself into the factories of the world as well as a large competitive regional market. Given its centrality, ASEAN will reap many benefits from the steady rise of the Chinese economy, the recovery and gradual opening of the Indian economy and the new growth momentum of the Japanese and Korean economies. All of these will offer numerous business and investment opportunities on top of ASEAN existing traditional markets such as the US and EU. In this context, we expect that the promotion of cooperation with external partners through free trade agreements such as ASEAN Plus One, ASEAN Plus Three, the regional economic comprehensive partnership and the trans-Pacific partnership will enable ASEAN to reap the benefit from newly emerging opportunities. Notwithstanding the aforementioned opportunities, ASEAN must continue to strive to address its challenges. These include maintaining macroeconomic abilities, managing difficulties resulting from social economic structural changes, domestic inequalities and development gaps between members of the state, strengthening competitiveness and improving productivity in order to avoid the middle income trap and maintaining peace, stability and security in the region. All these are prerequisites if ASEAN is to reap the full benefit of wider regional integration dust. ASEAN needs to continue its effort to facilitate integration in all sectors, especially by enhancing physical and institutional infrastructures, connectivity, promoting the elimination of the trade barriers, both tariff and non-tariff, defining and implementing policies to improve productivity and competitiveness of the economies focusing on the agriculture's industry sectors to support ASEAN growth. It must also strive to reduce domestic inequalities and to narrow development gaps in the region while promoting human resource and skill development. For Cambodia, regional integration is a historic opportunity for the development of a modern and prosperous nation. Cambodia is an open country with a dynamic economy and a demographic dividend. Cambodia has achieved sustained economic growth over the last two decades with rapid poverty reduction and has the strong potential to become a robust middle-income economy. In 2015, Cambodia will implement its industrial development policies with the objectives of transforming its industrial base from labor-intensive industry to skill-intensive industry by 2025 through attracting investment to higher-value edit and more competitive industry. To this end, the Royal Government of Cambodia will continue promoting investment in infrastructures strengthening connectivity of the transportation and logistics system and improving regulatory framework and trade facilitation. It will also amend the law on investment in incentive scheme, provide skilled training and develop the necessary social protection service. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Prime Minister, thank you so much. Let's move directly on to the view from Thailand. Deputy Prime Minister. Well, Excellency Hoon Sen has talked about the ASEAN in general and the benefit of ASEAN to all members in general. I can now be more specific. And that is the AEC, the Asian Economic Community by the end of this year. I would say that by the end of the year, a single market of over 600 million people will be realized. Some of the audience may not believe it, but believe me, we will have a single market by the end of this year, simply because we have gradually integrated the ASEAN on the trade and investment side for the past two decades. The tariff reduction has been gradually implemented for more than 20 years and by the year 2010, we have reduced our tariff by 99%. What is remained to be done is the harmonization of rules, harmonization of non-tariff bearer things. We have to get rid of non-tariff bearer things. But this doesn't prevent us to stop. We will keep on doing it and by the end of this year, we have full-fledged AEC. More important thing is on the cross-border investment. You may not realize that the cross-border investment between industrialized countries in ASEAN and the newly emerging economies in ASEAN has been for more than 10 years. And this is very important because in ASEAN, in the industrialized countries, we have a lot of entrepreneurs, private entrepreneurs, and they do have private capital. While our friends in the emerging economies are in shortage of private capital, and private capital is a key to any industrialization. So by having the investors from industrialized countries in ASEAN invest in the cross-border in the newly emerging economies, we are helping our friends in the newly emerging economies to industrialize their country faster. And this is very important. And this thing is going on, especially after the AEC, after the fully integration of AEC by the end of this year, there will be more cross-border movement between countries in ASEAN. Now, the next step is, where do we go from now? The cross-border investment will create a production basis of products in Asia, a product in ASEAN, and product in ASEAN will be traded not only between intra-regional trade, it will be traded, it will be exported to the world, too. So the next step what we should do is that ASEAN should get together and sign the FTA with major partners of the world. It should be FTA between ASEAN as a group and each major trading partner. It shouldn't be bilateral FTA between single-member country and major country. That would really defeat the purpose of ASEAN. By having FTA in the name of ASEAN with a major partner, we have bargaining power. We will have a more equitable FTA. I will leave it to you at that. Deputy Prime Minister, thank you so much. On to Vietnam, the view from that. Deputy Prime Minister. Yes, since his foundation in 1967 with the establishment of the APTA and also now the ASEAN community by the end of this year, ASEAN has been trying to extend the relations of ASEAN with its external countries. And now with the greater integration, I think there are many benefits for the ASEAN community. But to reap the benefits of the ASEAN community, we believe that we must focus on several issues. First, ASEAN must ensure the integration within ASEAN effective. And that is the ASEAN community by itself. Number two, each country must fight the integration as a driving force for the domestic reform because each country has different level of development, different economic policy, so there is need to have the... to have the accelerations of the economic reform in each country. Number three, because members of ASEAN countries have a different level of development, level of integration, so we must need to help assist the countries, the members of lower development and lower of integration to catch up with the integrations of the whole ASEAN community. Number four, it must enhance mutual trust in ASEAN to solve the common problems, many common problems in ASEAN, pollution, environmental degradation, such as such. Number five, it must make full use of the existing mechanism, ASEAN mechanism. Another mechanism in sub-region, for example, the Great Mekong region, ASEAN APEC. Finally, we must ensure the centrality of ASEAN in any mechanism. So those are the issues I think are very important. Could I just ask you one question, the centrality of ASEAN in those mechanisms, because you expand on what that means. Centrality of ASEAN meaning that ASEAN can play a central role in all mechanisms. In ASEAN now, there is a mechanism of ASEAN itself, mechanism between ASEAN and its dialogue partners, for example, EAS, East Asia Summit, with the participation of China, United States, Russia and others. But ASEAN must play a central role in this mechanism. That is the centrality. Deputy Prime Minister, thank you. Finally, to Malaysia, chair of ASEAN for 2015, with an ambitious and determined program for that chairmanship. If you would not only explain what Malaysia's priorities are, but perhaps address some of the issues brought up by our other panelists and talk about the challenges posed by trying to unite the priorities of all the member nations. Thank you, Timo. First of all, allow me to convey the apology of our Prime Minister for not being able to be here this afternoon. He's certainly been looking forward to this, but unfortunately had to fly to Riyadh to attend the funeral of King Abdullah. Now, allow me perhaps to cover my remarks in three parts. I think firstly, in terms of the two main priorities for ASEAN, I think firstly is to look at the formal establishment of the ASEAN community. Here our efforts would include to complete as much as possible the remaining action lines of the three ASEAN committee blueprints. As you know, ASEAN is not just about the economic community, but also about the political security community, as well as the social-cultural community. And the other priority would be to look at the post-2015 ASEAN. Second is on the issue of the ASEAN economic community. I guess there are a lot of efforts to move towards a coherent community here, and in respect of Malaysia, perhaps there are three in particular that would like to accelerate. One would be in terms of promoting further the concept of the ASEAN banking and integration framework. Now, this has been put in place by the central banks in ASEAN, but it has yet to be formalized. We're happy that in the last few days of 2014, Malaysia and Indonesia managed to sign the Heads of Agreement that will facilitate the greater presence of banks from Malaysia into Indonesia, and likewise from Indonesia into Malaysia. And it is our hope that the rest of the countries in ASEAN can start to sign this agreement. To me, this is very important to facilitate greater trade and investment between within ASEAN countries. The presence of banks across these ASEAN cities will certainly elevate the level of activities within ASEAN. Secondly is to expand the concept of mutual recognition across the various aspects, not just confined to trade of goods and services, but also in respect of skilled labour in respect of recognizing the various professions that we have, whether it's actually legal or I can't see a profession. And even to the extent of recognizing the visa issued by one country to be recognized by another. So I think this is something that can be embraced further. We take the point raised by the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand that we need to do a lot more in terms of harmonization of the various rules, including the non-trade barriers. But in some cases where we can't come up with complete harmonization, certainly the concept of mutual recognition can be expanded further. A third aspect of the economic community is perhaps something that can be thrown out in the open. And this is to explore the possibility of coming up with common ASEAN time zone. Now the ten countries in ASEAN has got three different time zones. Myanmar is actually GMT plus six and a half hours. Then we have the Indochina countries that will have GMT plus seven. Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Philippines are at the GMT plus eight. And then we have Indonesia which has got the three time zones, GMT plus seven, eight and nine. I think it would be great if somehow we can explore the possibility of having one common time zone and if possible align it to China time zone. So China is a huge country cutting across many time zones, but they do have one time. So I think it would be a great possibility to be explored. The third part I would like to cover, Timor would be to look at beyond economic prosperity. Now this is something which is very important and which we in Malaysia have learned. The agenda must certainly go beyond economic prosperity. Whatever growth in the economy that we are achieving, it must translate into the well-being of the people, the prosperity of the people. The Prime Minister has clearly mentioned that when it comes to pursuing the ASEAN agenda 2015 and beyond, it would be to look at more people centred ASEAN. To make sure that whatever economic prosperity that we achieve would be translated into higher household income for the people of ASEAN, great access to financing, great access to healthcare and a more sustainable environment and more inclusive society. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. We have a few minutes left, so what I'd like to do, propose at this point, is if each of you would maybe comment on what you've heard and whether the development here and the process that Malaysia has outlined for 2015 is viable. Please. Well a lot of things can be done and should be done to move ASEAN forward. The weak part of ASEAN is the implementation. The ASEAN secretary office is a bit weak, I would say that, you know, with limited budget and limited staff. Also, if you're going to move forward ASEAN, not only for economic benefit, but also for social benefit, the very key thing is that we have to beef up ASEAN secretary office and we have to select a more forceful, you know, more efficient, what do we say, you know, with the one who have cloud to run the ASEAN secretary office. So you share, you are sharing, Malaysia is sharing ASEAN this year. Think about it before you move. Otherwise it won't be successful. Mr. President, would you like to make a final comment? I would like to add a little bit that it delayed 2015, the end of one stage and step to another stage. That does not mean ASEAN has been completed, but it's to end one stage and step to another why many works has to be continued to be done. And I'm optimistic that we can do it with the effort internally and within ASEAN as a whole. This is what I see is difficult, but can be avoided and we have to do it. It is necessary that we have to do it later. Thank you. Deputy Prime Minister. Yes, one of the issues people are talking about is about the ASEAN identity. What we have the common ASEAN identity, many issues can be raised here. People's to people exchange quality, the same quality of education, for example. And the proposal from Malaysia about one common time zone could be also the identity of ASEAN. So there are many other things. When we reach to the ASEAN community, but at the same time we have to find the common ASEAN identity. Thank you. Well, I would like to echo the viewpoint of Deputy Prime Minister from Thailand in terms of the need to strengthen the ASEAN Secretary. I think there's a lot more things that we could do if the Secretary can be announced further to enhance its effectiveness, if you like. Now, if you look at the various initiatives that we have aligned three months ago in Nepal, the trade ministers have reinforced their commitment to fulfill as much as possible those initiatives. Now, I know that in this room today there are many skeptics to say that we'll never get there. But my view is that, look, we are not likely to get 100% compliance with all these initiatives. But if we can get to even 90% as a start by December, we would have come a long way. So I think let's move forward with a lot of confidence. And coming from the private sector before, if we were to take the pragmatic approach to more, I think ASEAN will go a long way. Let's ask you one question. Please promise again. I would like to add a little bit more in relation to the time zone. The idea is not new. But the leaders of ASEAN, my generation, it's Leon Minmi with the Sultan of Brunei. At the time Cambodia was chairman of ASEAN by the year 2012. I still remember that there was also discussion about the common time zone in order to guarantee that once the stock exchange closed in Hong Kong, in Singapore, but the stock exchange in Singapore, in Vietnam, in Laos, and in Thailand will not be lost because of the different of the time zone. That's one of the issues we have been thinking. And I think ASEAN can find the common identities in relation to the time zone. But what I would like to stress, it cannot become the common identity is on point that ASEAN have been a dry hand wheel, left hand hand wheel. That's the point that we cannot find the common point, this law. But because in some countries, like the former French colonization, choose the left hand dry wheel, and the former colonization of the right hand dry wheel. So it's very fine to find the common identities on the traffic zone. Thank you. We have run out of time now. But what we've done here today with this panel, ladies and gentlemen, is just provide a platform for some policy thoughts and some interesting policy thoughts. There's not been much debate here because I wanted to get a sense of how the land lies as we go in to the Malaysian year. The next part of our conversation will take on a little bit a number of those issues and examine them much more closely in a debate format. But for the moment, I'd like you to join me in thanking our politicians here on the panel today. Honsen, Prime Minister of Cambodia. Pugiaton de Vakula, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand at the Far End, Pham Ban Bin Min of Vietnam, and of course, Abdul Wahid Omar of Malaysia, who will stay with us for part two of our conversation, ladies and gentlemen. But thank you for the moment. I would ask you please to remain because the...