How to turn Asean into a global power
A think tank has advocated the strengthening of Asean鈥檚 unity and economy with the aim of placing the bloc at par with global superpowers.
Woo Wing Thye, who heads the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, said such unity and economic strength would, among other things, enable Asean to improve its military strength.
鈥淲e in Southeast Asia have to push for a new global governance agenda which pushes upon the Americans, Chinese and Indians,鈥 he said at a forum at Sunway University.
鈥淏ut to push such an agenda, Southeast Asia not only needs to be united, it needs to be rich enough to be able to afford military hardware that is equivalent to that of the big powers.
鈥淎nd a united Asean would be able to negotiate better.鈥
Achieving such a goal, he said, required 鈥減ainful internal economic reforms鈥.
He said one of the things Asean needed to do was to enter into free trade agreements.
鈥淲e should join every free trade bloc that comes along, and then undertake the kind of domestic policies that will compensate the losers in Asean.鈥
He said Asean should aim to be strong and united enough to be able to at least reduce the superpowers鈥 spheres of influence or to turn the region from being 鈥渁 so-called sphere of influence鈥 into 鈥渁 sphere of responsibility鈥.
