Chairman’s Circle / Strategic Forum 2013-8
“ASEAN 2015: ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community – Challenges and Opportunities.”
13 August 2013
Bottom row, from left to right:
Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, H.E. Ambassador Robina P. Marks (Republic of South Africa), H.E. Ambassador Rolf Schulze (Germany), General (ret) Bunchon Chawansin (HDFF Chairman)
Top row, from the left:
Mr. Antii Niemelä, (Charge d’affairs of Finland), Dr. Wilfried A. Herrmann (HDFF Executive Director), Dr. Pasakron Thammachote (Director ASEAN PLUS CENTER Prince of Songkhla University, Mr. John Brandon (Director International Relations Program, The Asia Foundation).
On 6 August 2013, the third in a series of six Chairman’s Circle / Strategic Forum on “ASEAN 2015 – Challenges and Opportunities”, jointly hosted by HDFF and The Asia Foundation, was held in the Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel in Bangkok. Welcome remarks were delivered by HDFF’s Chairman General (ret) Bunchon Chawansin and The Asia Foundation’s Director International Relations Program, Mr. John J. Brandon.
The Chairman Circle was attended by a wide range of high-level participants, including Ambassadors from Germany and South Africa as well as attachés from the Canadian, Finnish, Korean and Australian embassies, representatives of the EU Delegation, international organizations such as JICA, USAID and Habitat for Humanity International, World Vision, and other institutions that have a political, economic, or socio-cultural focus in the ASEAN region.
Picture 1 – Dr. Surin giving his keynote speech
This Chairman Circle session is an open forum where the main focus of the event was to discuss the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) as well as the challenges and opportunities that can arise from the ASEAN Community (AC) integration in 2015. HDFF invited distinguished keynote speaker Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the former Secretary General of ASEAN, who commenced the discussion with an interested insight on the opportunities and challenges that the region will face after the AC integration in 2015.
Dr. Surin highlighted the potential impacts of foreign direct investment and raised the question of how to balance the economic with the socio-cultural aspect of the AC. He called on the private sector to take an attitude to protect and integrate the rights and welfare of people in their business plans. The socio-cultural aspect of the AC must be strengthened in order to tackle the issues prevalent in the region such as human trafficking or migrant workers’ lack of access to welfare. He highlighted some challenges that the ASCC will face. Challenges include the differences between the ASEAN member states’ values and politics. Civil society is important to promoting and protecting the needs and privileges of the people however mobilizing them will be a challenge due country differences as mentioned above. Governments must learn to acknowledge and cooperate with civil society organizations. He highlighted the need to enhance an “ASEAN community” sentiment within the region, as this will be crucial to creating an open society that will lead on to promote the needs and privileges of the people in the ASEAN community.
The two questions that followed concentrated on the potential transfer of sovereignty within the AC, and whether Dr. Surin could provide guidelines on how to bring the three pillars together between the economic (AEC), political-security (APSC), and socio-cultural (ASCC). In response to the first question, Dr. Surin replied that ASEAN is taking incremental steps to the pulling of sovereign rights. He notes that the EU and ASEAN are different as there are more similarities within the EU region than within ASEAN. He says the EU is an inspiration but not a model to ASEAN. In response to the second question he believes civil society is important as it will fill in the holes that the government cannot.
Two speeches and a discussion panel followed Dr. Surin’s speech. Both panels were chaired by Dr. Peter Lehr, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV),
University of St. Andrews, Scotland/United Kingdom.
Panel 1: ASEAN 2015: ASEAN Economic Community
In the first panel, Dr. Pasakorn Thammachote from the ASEAN Plus Center at the Prince of Songkhla University and Dr. Nimnual Piewthongngam, the Executive Director of the AEC strategy center at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce presented the opportunities and challenges for the AEC.
Dr. Pasakorn Thammachote presented his study on “Southern Perspective on AEC”. SMEs should be involved in facilitating the integration of ASEAN. He states that the South can become hubs for trade between Thailand and Malaysia. However, there are current challenges. Dr. Pasakorn found that local level perspectives on the AEC differ from the macro-level understanding. Firstly, Thailand’s national economic strategy does not match the Southern economy. He also found that provincial governments do not have a roadmap to implement policies at a regional level. Much is needed to improve education and human resource development, and encourage value-added or innovation among SMEs.
Dr. Nimnual Piewthongngam introduced her study on the non-tariff barriers to trade within the AEC. She explained the benefits of liberalized trade as it could reduce the cost of goods. There is progress in eliminating tariff barriers however trade is still hindered due to non-tariff barriers such as poor logistics, “informal payments”, or the differing laws and regulations found across ASEAN country’s borders. Dr. Nimnual provides policy recommendations which may remedy the issue of non-tariff barriers to trade between ASEAN nations. Further recommendations include improving infrastructures to improve logistics, creating a committee to synchronize projects and processes between countries, and conducting institutional reforms to reduce corruption and custom clearance issues.
Picture 2 – Speaker sessions from both panels
Panel 2: ASEAN 2015: ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC)
In the second panel Ms. Yuko Hamada, the regional thematic specialist on Labor Migration/ Migration for development at IOM, Ms. Narisara Krutvecho, a Master’s degree candidate with the International Development Studies program at Chulalongkorn University, and Mr. Jake Lucchi, the national advocacy coordinator with the World Vision Foundation of Thailand discussed the opportunities and challenges that come with increased migration.
The second panel convened in the afternoon, discussing topics on migration and human trafficking. Ms. Yuko Hamada presented on IOM’s prediction of varying migration patterns that will occur due to the establishment of the AEC. Ms. Hamada highlighted institutional readiness, cross-sectorial dialogue and cooperation on labor mobility, and a lack of consensus and information among stakeholders as the challenges the AEC faces alongside migration. Ms. Narisara Krutvecho, presented her study on second generation Myanmar students in Thai schools within Samut Sakorn Province. She introduced a case study on Wat Kumphra School which has incorporated an AC focused curriculum aimed at promoting integration between Myanmar and Thai students through teaching of languages such as Mon and Chinese, and promoting activities that bring Thai and Ethnic students together. She found that the school can become a model for other schools in Thailand as it has successfully promoted integration between both nationalities.
Finally, Mr. Jake Lucchi spoke of the issue of human trafficking and its prevalence around the border areas of Thailand. Due to vague definitions within the Palermo protocol that is used by the UN when tackling transnational organized crime, has led to some challenges such as defining labor trafficking from smuggling. Victim identification also poses as a challenge for those working in prevention. Mr. Lucchi stated that extensive work has been conducted on awareness but not on prevention. In a study by World Vision they found that people in Ranong are aware of the issue of trafficking but are not willing to report incidents as they lack confidence in authorities to solve the issue or they fear retribution. He expressed that community is important to work in human trafficking as it could lead to identification of victims. Mr. Lucchi recommended building community level networks and activities to enhance sentiments. He calls for better communication and clarity between ASEAN member states to eliminate risks cause by the varying migration laws and policies.
Picture 3: Participants of the Chairman Circle 2013
HDFF would like to thank the speakers and the participants for their attendance and participation in the making the third Chairman Circle a valuable and informative experience.
The fourth Chairman Circle/ Strategic Forum will be held around end of September or in the beginning of October 2013, topics and speakers will be announced soon. At that time HDFF will also be presenting an exhibition on its projects in Southern Thailand. More information on this will be posted on the website in the near future. If you would like additional information, you can contact HDFF on info@hdff.org or via Mr. Christoph Gassner at gassner@hdff.org.
Comments are closed