ASEAN Must Reframe Economic Strategy Amid Global Polycrisis
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 (Bernama) -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to undertake a bold re-framing of its economic strategy as the region navigates a complex polycrisis, said Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong.
He said the region is no stranger to a changing world order, and it has to create a middle class to turn ASEAN into a consumer base, and not just a production base.
"To have a strong middle class in ASEAN means that the world will have more than the current three large consumer markets: namely, the United States (US), Europe, and China.
'This in turn would enhance ASEAN's leverage over other regions," he said in his keynote address at the Commemoration of the 58th ASEAN Day and the Seventh (7th) ASEAN Economic Integration Forum here today.
Citing historical context, Liew said ASEAN was formed to solidify the newfound peace between Malaysia and Indonesia and to avoid wars among member states in times of chaos.
"ASEAN knew very well in 1967, just as it knows now, that only in a peaceful region will member nations grow richer.
"To maintain peace, ASEAN does not need the 'security umbrella' of any superpowers, but to build peace and prosperity among ASEAN member states," said the deputy minister.
Since the end of the Cold War and as the multiple conflicts in Indochina drew to a close in the 1990s, he said ASEAN has grown by leaps and bounds economically, but the region has pursued an export-led industrialisation strategy that presupposed the US as the final destination for exports.
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