ASEAN’S

They call for the galvanised efforts of all Asean members

THE next week will witness the culmination of the Philippines’ chairmanship of Asean as the country hosts the 31st Asean Summit and ceremonially hands over the reins to Singapore, the chair next year. The summit will doubtless present another opportunity to mark Asean’s 50th anniversary and celebrate its many triumphs since 1967.

Yet, as new challenges to Southeast Asia’s peace and prosperity begin to crystallise, it should also be a moment for serious thought about how the region can continue to thrive in the coming decades. It was with the future of Southeast Asia in mind that the Asean Institutes of Strategic and International Studies (AseanIsis) addressed a policy memorandum to the Asean foreign ministers earlier this year. Isis Malaysia is a member of AseanIsis, a network of leading thinktanks from each member state.

Titled “The Future of Asean: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing Global and Regional Landscape”, the memorandum aims to do two things: highlight key challenges that merit Asean’s focused attention, and suggest practical measures that will enhance Asean’s ability to respond to those challenges.

In its collective assessment of Asean’s future, Asean-Isis finds that the region is well-placed to remain as an engine of global economic growth. We have high confidence that Asean will collectively be the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2050.

Furthermore, Asean’s good track record in promoting regional cooperation means that it will continue to have a degree of influence over key developments in the broader Asian region.

There are five key challenges that call for the galvanised efforts of all Asean member states. These are of such magnitude and consequence which no single nation can adequately respond on its own.

The first challenge is that we