DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “ASEAN countries urged to boost investment for economic growth” plus 1 more

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should further boost investment to weather uncertainties of the current global economic climate, said its deputy secretary- general Lim Hong Hin on Thursday.

One of the important lessons of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 is that recovery may not be sustainable without growth in private investment, Lim said.

The ongoing global economic uncertainties offer ASEAN the same lesson that the 10-nation bloc needs a domestically generated growth to sustain its medium-term growth prospect, he added.

The deputy secretary-general for ASEAN economic community was speaking at the forum on the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA), which came into effect in 2012 to boost investment in the region.

Strong domestic demand, especially domestic investment, has helped the economy of ASEAN countries remain dynamic despite the global uncertainties.

According to Mustapa Mohamed, minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of ASEAN grew by 5.2 percent in 2012, outpacing the global economy.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted a 5 to 6 percent annual growth for the period of 2013 to 2017 in ASEAN.

However, Lim said the ASEAN countries should do more to boost investment. "The dependence of most ASEAN countries on external demand has been an Achilles' heel that made us vulnerable to the crisis," he said.

He urged the ASEAN countries to make the ACIA work in order to face the challenge posed by global uncertainties and realize the goal of achieving ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. "We have to make sure that it is not just another agreement, but something that will create a difference in transforming our different investment regimes into one integrated regime that can create opportunities for our economies, and more importantly, for the market,"he said.

ASEAN groups Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

HANOI, March 21 (Xinhua) -- At the on-going 47th Council Conference of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), which was convened in Vietnam's capital Hanoi from March 19 to 21, participating ministers of education signed SEAMEO Statement on Strategic Collaboration towards Regional Development.

Specifically, they agreed on the need for SEAMEO to build on its strategic partnerships and amalgamate the SEAMEO Regional Centers' expertise and resources to help SEAMEO member countries attain their respective national education goals and at the same time contribute to the achievement of regional development goals.

Capitalizing on its 47 solid years of experience on regional cooperation since 1965, SEAMEO will further strategic alliances, regional collaboration, and open dialogues towards a more integrated, developed and dynamic Southeast Asia, said the statement.

SEAMEO statement consists of six major groups of tasks that its member countries pledged to strive for, aimed at enhancing SEAMEO' s collaboration on education, science and culture to contribute to the growth of the Southeast Asian region.

Signatories to the statement said they recognized that the ever- changing labor market needs and fast global development pose enormous challenges to Southeast Asia to sustain and upgrade the competitiveness of its human resources.

In response, they said they firmly believed that regional strategies should be aimed at benefiting individual member countries while at the same time seamlessly achieve integration for regional growth.

Established in 1965, SEAMEO is an international and regional inter-governmental organization, currently having 11 member states including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

It also has eight associate members, three affiliate members, and 20 regional centers and development partners.

The headquarters of SEAMEO is located in Bangkok, Thailand.