Indonesian official calls for ASEAN cooperation

English.news.cn   2011-05-07

JAKARTA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- An Indonesian official said on Saturday that cooperation between member states of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) is a must, because competition is not only about country-to-country, but also between the different regions.

"ASEAN cooperation is a necessity as we are in the era of globalization where competition is not about country-to-country but between regions," Irman Gusman, speaker of the Regional Representative Council, said after the opening of the 18th ASEAN Summit.

"ASEAN must be one of the most dynamic regions (in the world)," said Gusman.

According to Gusman, to materialize the goal, ASEAN must address its internal conflict that is occurred among some of its member states.

"The internal conflict must be settled bilaterally but (ASEAN) integration is very important in economy. ASEAN must be one of the world economic centers. This must be the future development model. In economy, we are not talking about single nation of country but about regional level," said Gusman.

Related to ASEAN's ambition to take a greater role in global level, Gusman said that he is optimistic that the bloc could achieve it.

"We must (do that). We have potentials to do that," said Gusman.

Editor: Fang Yang