Posted at GMA News on August 8, 2012 5:11pm
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario on Wednesday called for a more unified and cohesive regional bloc among members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the push toward a single market in 2015.
The bloc is marking its founding anniversary on Wednesday, 45 years after the ASEAN Declaration was signed in Bangkok, Thailand, on Aug. 8, 1967, with the Philippines providing the impetus creating the regional body.
“The success of the emerging ASEAN Community has far reaching implications for our peoples and the Asia Pacific region,” Del Rosario said in a statement.
As a founding member, the Philippines “has been steadfast in its commitment to strengthen ASEAN’s institutions and build an ASEAN Community which is people oriented and people centered.”
Goepolitical disputes in the West Philippine (South China) Sea was instrumental in ASEAN’s failure to come up with a joint communiqué at their close of the foreign misters meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last month with Vietnam and the Philippines seeking a common position on China’s aggressive stance over disputed areas.
To facilitate trade and investments among members Laos, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, and the Philippines are going for a single market and production base by 2015.
The Philippines also supports political and socio-cultural integration among the 10 member-countries, Del Rosario said.
To mark ASEAN’s 45th founding day, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Department of Foreign Affairs will launch a currency overprint of the Asean logo on 10 million Philippine P50 bills.
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