PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's clear mission is to strengthen the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) chairmanship through cooperation between its members beyond its one-year role, says Liew Chin Tong.
The Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister said it is important to get Asean members to agree to adopt Malaysia’s concept of the Asean Community Vision 2045 proposal as a development guide for the next 20 years.
“If we have the political will and our colleagues in other countries have the political will, we should strengthen the secretariat. We need to have a clear mission and strengthen the Asean chair. Personally, I would suggest that the Philippines, the next chair country, be involved in some of our activities.
“I hope my government will practice it across the board. So we can gradually form a cooperation where the current chair, next chair, the following chair, can work together,” he said.
Liew said this at a dialogue session, Asean in a Multipolar World, under the MITI session, held at the 25th Asia News Network Anniversary programme here on Thursday (Sept 5).
Malaysia is set to assume the Asean chairmanship from Laos at the Asean summit in October, 2024.
Regarding media participation, Liew said the country plans to foster cooperation between Asean countries by bringing together economic and business editors in Kuala Lumpur next year.
“We can discuss the future economic narrative and ideas about how we should move forward as an organisation in Asean and beyond.
“We should have explained the economic relations and interconnectedness to the wider public,” he said, citing the example of onion supply from India to Malaysia.
Liew further elaborated that Asean state members should cooperate to find new ways to deal with economic and upcoming challenges.
He said Asean countries should instead create better cooperation with each other so they can race to the top and build better societies.
“There was pressure by the multinational companies that we should be competing against each other by offering tax cuts, suppressing wages, destroying our environment to compete for them to invest in our respective countries.
“These went on for years, and we are told to do this to achieve economic growth.
“Moving forward, I think it is time for us to think about this. We must set a floor. We must talk to each other,” he added.
