ERIA seeks for implementation of Phnom Penh Declaration
Photos and report by Chhay Sophal
Cambodia News
Petaling Java, Malaysia (4 December 2015): The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) on Friday urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its partners to follow up the plan of action to implement the Phnom Penh Declaration on East Asia Summit Development Initiative adopted in Cambodia 3 years ago.
The Phnom Penh Declaration focuses on cooperation in six priority areas — energy; education; finance; global health including pandemics; environment and disaster management; and Connectivity of ASEAN for 2015. Since it is a comprehensive work, however, the implementation has been extended until the end of 2017.
Speaking in his welcoming remarks at “The 4th ERIA Editors Roundtable – The ASEAN Community Post 2015 Vision” here in Kuala Lumpur, ERIA President Prof. Hidetoshi Nishimura said it is very important for the implementation in the 2 upcoming years for the interest of ASEAN community and its partners.
On 20 November 2012, Heads of State and Government of the ASEAN Member States, Australia, America, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Russia announced in the 7th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to recall the 2005 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the EAS, the 2010 Ha Noi Declaration on the Commemoration of the 5th Anniversary of the EAS, and the 2011 Declaration of the EAS on the Principles for Mutually Beneficial Relations, and reaffirming their importance in setting the broad vision, principles, objectives, and modalities of the EAS.
The 10-nation ASEAN — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – is the driving force within the EAS, according to the ASEAN statement.
The initiatives “will be implemented through existing regional frameworks and mechanisms of ASEAN, in close consultation with EAS participating countries and with appropriate support from relevant international organisations such as Asia Development Bank (ADB), Economic Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)”, the statement reads.
ERIA was established by a formal agreement among 16 ASEAN Heads of the Government at the 3rd East Asia Summit in Singapore on 21 November 2007. Before then, experts from the 16 countries and the ASEAN Secretariat had intensive discussions and elaborated the idea of ERIA by sharing views on the basic concept, guiding principles, structure, research themes, capacity building programs, etc.
The three main objectives of ERIA are aiming to facilitate ASEAN Economic Community building and support ASEAN’s role as the driver of the wider economic integration and sustainable growth in the region; to contribute to narrowing of the development gaps and fostering research capabilities which can value-add to public policy-making; and to nurture a greater sense of community in East Asia.
The 1st ERIA Roundtable was done in Cambodia; the second was in Brunei; and the third one was in Myanmar.
