On 7 August 2016, the 13th ASEAN Leadership Forum discussed the topic of “ASEAN Community: Enhancing Opportunities and Shared Prosperity”. ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Vice President of Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of ASEAN Business Advisory Council Mr. Oudet Souvannavong made remarks respectively. CEO of Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI) Yang Yuanqing, officials of governments of ASEAN countries, Ambassadors to Lao PDR, representatives of international organizations, business and media totaling about 300 attended the forum. H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), attended the forum on invitation.
H.E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN said the ASEAN Leadership Forum provided an effective platform for governments, academia, public and private sectors to discuss the future of ASEAN. ASEAN had walked through a marvelous process, expanding from 5 members to 10 in 50 years. The establishment of the ASEAN Community was the milestone in the process of ASEAN development. The GDP of ASEAN hit 2.6 trillion USD in 2015 after an annual growth of 5.5% in recent years, making ASEAN he sixth largest economic entity and the third largest market in the world. In 2016, the GDP of ASEAN was projected to grow by 4.5%, higher than the estimated global economic growth. Investors were optimistic to the development prospects of ASEAN. ASEAN maintained peace, stability and prosperity, contributing to the development of Pacific-Asia region. ASEAN had set up the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, aiming to deepen regional integration, promote the trade and investment facilitation, reduce tariff and trade barriers, build a more transparent business environment, enhance connectivity, reduce the gap of development, promote innovation-growth increase, and achieve substantial development. Promoting competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises was of great importance to the development of ASEAN. ASEAN would support and encourage private sectors to participate in ASEAN integration. ASEAN would continue to play a leading role in regional cooperation, and increase participation in global governance, formulate a concerted position, and speak in one voice so as to make contributions to address global challenges.
Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed made speeches to commend the outstanding achievements of Lao PDR. He hoped that the ASEAN Leadership Forum could focus on the opportunities and challenges faced by ASEAN, and contribute to designing the future of ASEAN as well as provide suggestions to policy makers of ASEAN countries. He said, in recent decades, with an annual growth of GDP of 5%, ASEAN was likely to grow from the sixth largest economic entity to the fourth in the world in 20 years. Meanwhile, ASEAN would tackle unprecedented challenges including imbalanced internal development, capability building, cross-border crime, human trafficking, illegal immigration, etc. ASEAN must keep alert and respond actively to terrorism which was a global issue. The success of ASEAN relied on pragmatic policies of each member state, active participation of civil society, support from dialogue partners, democracy and rule of law. ASEAN would maintain internal harmony and make constant efforts to achieve the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 to enable the outcomes of development to benefit the people.
Vice President of the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of ASEAN Business Advisory Council Mr. Oudet Souvannavong introduced efforts made by the Business Advisory Council to promote convenience of trade and investment, support small and medium-sized enterprises, and develop e-commerce. He said that the European security was unstable, trade protectionism of some countries had been raised, the global economic recovery remained slow, all of which gave negative impacts on ASEAN. He hoped this forum could discuss important issues related to the development of ASEAN, contributing ideas and exerting efforts to pursue greater prosperity of ASEAN.