Diversities put ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations) members together for integration which makes the regional
bloc stronger in an era of globalization today, said ASEAN
Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong.
"If ASEAN member countries are individuals one by one, we will
never be as strong as today," Ong said in an exclusive interview
with Xinhua at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on Wednesday.
"We know the diversities sometimes divide us, but each of us has
strong suits. For example, Indonesia is a big country with
thousands of islands and so much natural resources, and Singapore
is a small city, but it has network and human resources. They can
complement each other. Finally, we come together and develop much
more solid foundation," said Ong.
Countries in the region have huge diversities. They have
different ideologies, believe in different religions, live in
different cultural backgrounds, economic and social development are
also in different phases. These are seen as one of the biggest
challenge for future integration of ASEAN.
"If we do not unite, we can not compete. Even Indonesia itself,
the biggest economy in ASEAN, can not compete with economic giants
like Japan, China and India," said Ong. "But if we come together,
we can have a good run."
As the goal of ASEAN is to build "a caring and sharing
community," he stressed, "It means that we help each other, then we
will have stronger peace.
"We need to strengthen the social cultural agenda, so we have to
develop education, protect environment, care about our workers
working in other countries, fight all the diseases and public
health problems, we should now work with each other," said the
secretary-general.
(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2007)
