 Ladies and gentlemen, your excellencies, distinguished participants, and co-chairs of the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2013. Please join me in welcoming His Excellency, U Thien Sen, President of the Union Republic of Myanmar. And from Vietnam, it's wonderful to once again welcome our very gracious host from our 2010 East Asia meeting, His Excellency, Nguyen Tan Tsung, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. And from Lao PDR, we are honored to welcome for the second time His Excellency, Pong Shing Tham Vong, Prime Minister of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. President Thien Sen, 12 months ago in Bangkok, the forum made a pledge of our highest commitment to contribute positively to the reform and reconciliation process which you have courageously initiated. And today, gathered here in Napetaw, are over 1,000 participants representing 55 different countries and the best thinking and the best ideas from industry, government, international organizations, civil society and academia. Our pledge now, and going forward, is to ensure that our collective capacity, our collective creativity and our collective strategic capital will be leveraged towards inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth. Our pledge and our hope is that everyone here will use the opportunity of this forum to learn and to listen and to lead by seeing in the challenges an opportunity to invest in a better future for all. And now, to commence the proceedings of the opening ceremony, I invite my Executive Chairman and the founder of the World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab, to initiate the proceedings. Your Excellency, President Thien Sen, Prime Minister Song of Vietnam and Prime Minister Thong Sing of Laos, distinguished members of governments, it's a great pleasure to be here. It's a privilege to be here. At the moment when history is written, I'm delighted that so many members and constituents of the World Economic Forum have followed our invitation to be here, and I would like to greet particularly our partners and members. And here I, my special greetings, go to the co-chairs of this meeting. Helen Clark, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program, Anthony Fernandez, the Group Chief Executive of AirAsia, Koji Masan, the Chairman of the Board of Mitsubishi Corporation, Indra Nui, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HEPSI and Co, and a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, Mr. Ramadurai, the Vice-Chairman of the DATA Consultancy Services, and John Rice, the Vice-Chairman of General Electric. I would like to greet amongst the participants also the member of the Foundation Board of our young global leaders, former Seniors Minister Ko-Chok Thong. It's very important that we have not only business engaged here, but such young generation, all parts of society, social entrepreneurs, global shapers have joined us for this very special event. Mr. President, it's only 18 months ago, in November 2011, when I paid you and Da Angiang Shushi my first visit, and I came first in this country. It was the beginning of the reform process. You came, your government was also represented in Davos last year, this year. You were represented in Bangkok at our last East Asian Economic Summit. And I think there was always great curiosity about this special reform process you have embarked in. But today, I think we are here not only as observers. We are here as partners, as partners of a process which has become irreversible. Let's not forget, in 18 months, to initiate a reform process which comprises three different components, a political component, an economic component, and a social component. A reform process which cannot be only top-down as it started, but will certainly be also in the future bottom-up. A reform process for which we have to commend all the leaders of this country. The objectives of this meeting are very clear. We have two objectives. The first one is to stimulate sustained, high, and inclusive growth. And here, I think your country is fortunate because it's endowed with many resources, human resources, natural resources, a great location. You can do really leapfrogging. You can learn from your neighbors around the region. And you can do the best benchmarking, copying process where others had to go through a learning process. You can be faster. So I'm very optimistic about this country. I have seen a number of forecasts made, but I did my own calculation and I would say this country, by adapting fast, can achieve a growth rate of 10% on a longer-term basis. Now, what does it mean? 10% means multiplying by 8 GDP in 21 years in a little bit practically in the time of one generation. You have your neighbors who have already practiced this pass into a more mid-income or even higher-income society. So you have good examples and I think it's makeable. You can do it because if you look, you have the potential. But there were the impediments and the impediments were self-inflicted. They were not necessarily external. But you have recognized those impediments and you are defining the necessary policies and the necessary vision to overcome some. It's a rich country with poor people. We hope it will be soon a rich country also with rich people. You are nation-building, building a modern, politically and economically well-integrated country soon having the chairmanship of ASEAN. But what is most important and I have heard over the last two days so many different ideas, proposals, I feel it all can be summarized in one word. Trust. We trust you that those reforms undertaken will be accelerated, will become more inclusive, will involve all stakeholders and are irreversible. But you can also trust, Mr. President, the international business community to accompany on your way into the future and to be trusted partner of your progress. I would like to end my introductory words paraphrasing the wisdom of Mandela. We have been part also of the transformation process of South Africa 20 years ago. And there is one word which I would like to paraphrase of Madiba Mandela. All those who have found themselves in the position of trying to transform society have no time for revenge, for skepticism, for cynicism because they are all focused on building the future. Ladies and gentlemen, let's now welcome the President of the Union of Myanmar. Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, my great pleasure to be here with you today at this opening of the World Economic Forum on East Asia. We are honored that this year, the World Economic Forum is taking place in Myanmar and our capital, Nibiru, and I wish you all the best of success in your deliberations and discussions over the coming days. We meet at a very special moment in Asia's history. Over the past few decades, we have witnessed great economic advance in this region. Many countries, generations of young people have come to raise any period of unparalleled peace and prosperity free of colonialism and equal in their opportunities to young people anywhere else in the world. I trust that in your panels and meetings you will discuss and debate the challenge to come and to define ways to overcome them. I ask you to be particular to steer clear of abstraction to place at the center the needs of the poor and vulnerable and explain ways in which both the public and private sectors will come together to ensure a shared prosperity. You come to Myanmar at a pivotal moment in our history. We are working hard to move from military rule to democracy to end the multiple armed conflicts that have ridden this nation since independent in 1948 and to reform the economy away from a centralized economy to one based on free market. I promise you that we will not waver in this task but help and support your investment and knowledge while we are critical for us to full succeed. I would like nothing more than for the young people of Myanmar to share, too, in the greater peace and prosperity of this region. I hope many of you will also take the opportunity of being here to also travel around my country. You will see firsthand the determinations of people to improve their lives and build a better future again. I wish you all the best for this important forum. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. May I now call on the Prime Minister of Vietnam. Excellency President Tain Tain of Myanmar. Excellency Prime Minister Tung Sin Tamabong of the Lao PDR, Professor Cross-Trial Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen. It gives me a great pleasure to attend the 22nd World Economic Forum on East Asia, held for the first time in the beautiful and hospitable Nebitol. This forum theme as courageous transformation for inclusion and integration, not only displays the enthusiasm and support of the international community for the successful transformation in the host country Myanmar, but also testifies to the dynamic evolution of East Asia in general, and of ASEAN in particular. At the outset, on behalf of the Vietnamese government, I congratulate Myanmar on its enormous achievements made in various areas. I wish to congratulate Professor Cross-Trial on the important fruits of the World Economic Forum over the years. I look forward to the forum's continued positive contributions to the sustainable development of the region and the world. The decision to focus this forum on regional integration and transformation is highly appropriate and timely. This is because of the reason that the cohesion of the two processes and the urgency of vigorous actions to help individual regional countries and the East Asia as a whole overcome challenges and attain the shared goals at the edge of the day, particularly when the ASEAN community is to be materialized in 2015. Ladies and gentlemen, East Asia now enjoys dynamic development and is home to the world's biggest economies and many emerging ones as well. Here, the trend of multi-layer, multi-sector cooperation and linkages for joint development and mutual benefit becomes dominant. The environment offers huge opportunities but also requires national efforts to reform, self-improve and adapt to an intensifying competition and integration. Taking stock of the past more than two decades, I could say that it was the proactive international integration and transformation from a centrally planned to a market economy dynamism, innovation, entrepreneurship and policy adaptation that enabled Vietnam to steer through difficulties and get meaningful achievements. The consistent policy of Vietnam is to develop a vibrant, competitive market economy where all stakeholders can maximize the capabilities and to integrate actively and initiatively into the region and the world. Against the backdrop of the current global economy, Vietnam is focusing on the restructuring of its economy, renewing its growth model for sustainable development and the attainment of its goal of becoming a fundamentally industrialized country by 2020. Vietnam will do its utmost to work with Myanmar and other members to increase cooperation, connectivity and linkages in all areas for mutual benefits and development so as to contribute practically to ASEAN community building. At the time of globalization alongside national efforts, developing countries including Vietnam could only meet their growth targets, reduce poverty and become an advanced industrialized nation. Given a cooperative and stable international environment conducive to development and based on the respect for international law, free flow of trade and investment via economic connectivity as well as reliable and effective collaboration among nations in addressing common regional and global challenges is the must. That is why the vigorous integration in East Asia in general and ASEAN in particular holds significant importance. At this forum, I wish to highlight an indispensable component of regional integration which is the growing economic cooperation, integration and connectivity among the inland, ASEAN or Mekong countries where several transnational economic corridors have been established. Since 1989, these countries with the assistance from the Asian Development Bank have been developing a number of economic corridors which aims to promote cross-border trade, improve regional competitiveness, develop infrastructure and facilitate socio-economic development in remote areas. These corridors are expected to bridge South Asia and Central Asia with East Asia. Connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans, I believe that any enterprises planning to expand the markets should not fail to take this factor into consideration. One of such corridors is the East West Economic Corridor stretching over 1,020 km from the Danang Port of Vietnam crossing 13 provinces and cities of Vietnam Laos, Thailand and Myanmar before reaching the port city of Mau, La Main. It is estimated that transportation from North Eastern Thailand to North Asia via the corridor would save between 300 and 500 communities as against the old ones. The economic benefits of the corridor would be maximized once combined with other regional connectivity initiatives such as the Asian Highway and the Trans-Asian Railings. However, to make the corridor truly meet our expectations and become a prosperous economic corridor apart from the efforts of governments, the port of development partners and the participation of the private sector are indispensable. I therefore call on businesses to invest in projects for social and economic development along the corridor for the benefits of your own of the communities and the entire region. The Vietnamese government is willing to dialogue with all enterprises for an open and enabling business climate that caters to the interests of all. I also call for closer collaboration between countries along the corridor and development partners to timely clear the bottlenecks to help the growth of this corridor. Ladies and gentlemen, the path ahead of us will have many opportunities and also no small challenges asking for new approaches, innovations and a brainstorming mindset. Therefore, it is my expectation that this forum would offer new ideas toward a new momentum for sustainable and inclusive development of the region. Finally, I wish the forum every success and wish you all health, happiness and success. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you, Prime Minister. My call now on Prime Minister Thong Shing from Laos. Excellency Thong Shing, the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Excellency Prime Minister of Vietnam. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I'd like to express my sincere thanks to the President, Tensin and Professor Klaus Wa for inviting me to participate in this World Economic Forum on East Asia in this beautiful city, the capital of Myanmar. The economic integration has increasingly become the overall trend in the era of globalization that on-country have become more and more interdependent and join together day by day. To this end, ASEAN has pursued much efforts in realizing ASEAN community by 2015 and moving towards the East Asia community, Asia Economic Community or Asia Pacific Community in the future as we have seen several initiatives have been undertaken over the past year. In order to integrate its economic with ASEAN, Laos PDR has focused on realizing its strategic plans and on-action plan of initiative for Asian integration, aiming to narrow down the living gap between ASEAN member country of New Zealand own. ASEAN has focused on country development in other two, integrated with the region and to prepare for realizing ASEAN community in 2015 and to graduating the country from LDC status. Throughout the implementation of the socio-economic development plan over the past year, Laos PDR have noticed with satisfaction the fruitful results step by step suggests the economic growth rate has increased from 7.9% per annum during 2006 to 2010 to 8% in 2011 and 8.3% in 2012 and poverty rate of household unit has decreased from 27.7% in 2003 to 17.7% in 2011 and 13% in 2012. Mr. President, Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, regarding the improving of the connectivity with other countries in the region, Laos PDR has attacked great importance as a landlocked country but we have attacked great importance to the inclusive cooperation policy and integration with five neighbor countries. It has also cooperated with ASEAN in realizing master plans of ASEAN integration and focuses on developing infrastructure in order to facilitate the transportation trade and investment, especially it has improved and expanded the transportation network highway road and integrated with a close neighbor country. This has laid out a foundation for the cooperation and integration with a country near and far. This time we also focus on building more bridges in several places to connect with countries like Thailand and recently the bridge has been under construction to connect with Vietnam. And in the Greater Mekong sub-region framework there are many projects that we have extended support to each other such as we have built the R3 road to connect Kunming in China with northern part of Thailand through the northern province of Laos. And the connection from Lamsa Prang, Bangkok, Mugdahan of Thailand through the Nye Road in Sawanake province of Laos PDR has also focused on improving on the transportation in order to facilitate the transportation between Vien Chan capital to Hanoi and Kunming. At the same time the agreement has been signed in order to build up the railway from Kunming to Vien Chan and connect to Thailand. This will become the connectivity of the country and the region in other two also next plan to connect in several places for Laos and Thailand. Laos PDR will continue to open wide cooperation with neighbour country either in a bilateral role, multilateral role and the region, especially in CLMV, CLV and the cooperation in the framework of Mekong country. Cooperate with every country within the Asian framework in order to promote the connection and economic integration in the region. We will focus on realizing on potential in the country in combination with the support in order to promote and mobilize investment from other country in order to develop its socioeconomic and we also focus on learning the good lesson from neighbour country. Thank you. Very refreshing for someone who has observed this region and has been in the region since many, many years to see the emphasis our speakers put on the ASEAN region as a region of the future. We all know that regions will be the fundaments in the future of a globalized world. I also would like to highlight the commitment of all the three speakers to inclusiveness which is so close to our heart during this meeting and where we have scheduled the number of sessions to see how this inclusiveness could be arranged. This concludes our formal opening session and I would like to thank President Tencent, Prime Minister Tsung and Prime Minister Tong Sing very much again for being part of us and sharing with us a wisdom at the outset of this meeting. I wish you a very good meeting. Be as active and as engaged as possible. Again, we are here probably at a historical moment and I would like to thank you, Mr. President, on this occasion also for the excellent cooperation we had in preparing this meeting, the support of the government of Myanmar and the support and hospitality of its people. Thank you.