PHNOM PENH: Southeast Asian nations must redouble efforts to bridge development gaps which threaten the region’s efforts to create an EU-style single market, Cambodia’s prime minister said yesterday.
Building an Asean economic community by 2015 is the “top priority”, Hun Sen said as he opened the annual meeting of economic ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the Cambodian tourist hub of Siem Reap.
Emulating the European Union’s example, Asean wants to establish a single market and manufacturing base of about 600 million people — a goal that has been spurred by intensifying competition from China and India.
With less than three years to go, Asean must “address challenges and bridge the development gap, which hinders the realisation of (the) Asean Economic Community as planned”, said Hun Sen, according to an official translation.
The development gap among Asean nations “is still huge”, he said.
“This requires us to double our efforts to promote further growth and improve equitable distribution of the fruits of growth at both national and regional levels,” Hun Sen said. — AFP