The 14th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit opened here Saturday afternoon as leaders of the 10 member countries of the bloc began their annual consultation in the coastal town of Thailand.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attends the 14th ASEAN Summmit

The theme of the summit is ’ASEAN Charter for ASEAN Peoples’. Besides, there are three sub-themes, namely ’Towards More Effective Community-Building’, ’Enhancing Regional Resilience against Global Threats’, and ’Reinforcing ASEAN Centrality in the Evolving Regional Architecture’.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand, said ASEAN is destined to become a more integrated, more effective and more compassionate community that serves its most important stakeholder, namely, the peoples of ASEAN.

“In forging ahead, ASEAN will put peoples first–in its vision, in its policies and in its action plans,” said Abhisit.

Economic crisis, human rights, ASEAN integration, among others, will be high on topics for discussion at the summit.

Abhisit, whose country currently holds the rotating chair of the ASEAN, said that ASEAN is set out to take action and restore confidence when confronting the current financial crisis.

“ASEAN is at the frontier of an economic battle and recovery….As the financial crisis deepens, the world will look towards our region for action and for confidence, which is exactly what we in ASEAN are set out to do,” Abhisit said.

On ASEAN’s community building, the prime minister said each ASEAN member’s unique experience, capabilities and assets would be more effective when put to good use together than when utilized separately.

“The key is to be able to work together to come up with ASEAN solutions to not only ASEAN problems but also to global challenges with regional implications. This is what is expected of an ASEAN Community,” he said.

It is expected that a total of 24 documents will be signed or adopted by ASEAN Leaders, ASEAN Foreign Ministers and ASEAN Economic Ministers during the Summit. They will cover issues relating to ASEAN community-building, cooking and energy security as well as economic cooperation.

Of all these outcome documents, the Declaration on the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community 2009-2015 will be signed by ASEAN leaders.

The 14th ASEAN Summit, which had been postponed twice due to Thailand’s political turbulence, brought together leaders from the ten member states, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Major regional trade pacts signed in Thailand

The ASEAN economic ministers have signed six economic agreements covering a wide range of sectors, from trade, investment, medical service to accountancy.

The signing took place in Hua Hin, Thailand, on February 27 during their informal meeting in the lead up to the 14th ASEAN summit scheduled for February 28-March 1.

Analysts said the agreements will lay a firm foundation for the establishment of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, focusing on the free movement of goods, medical service, investment and skilled labour.

The ministers also signed a major free trade deal with Australia and New Zealand as they opened a regional summit focused on the global economic meltdown. The deal is the most comprehensive ever agreed by the bloc, which is home to nearly 600 million people.

Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and his NZ counterpart Tim Groser signed the pact along with ASEAN ministers nearly four years after talks on the deal first began.

The agreement is part of a raft of measures mooted by the organisation to ride out the global economic crisis, including a US$120 billion emergency fund agreed upon by financial ministers in Spain last Sunday.

Under the agreement, which is set to take effect on July 1, Australia and NZ will remove all tariff barriers on al commodities from ASEAN countries by 2020, while Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand will slash tariffs on most commodities from Australia and NZ by 2020.

Only Singapore will remove all tariff barriers for Australia and NZ once the pact is enacted. Other less economically advanced economies – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – are given more time to eliminate their import tariffs.

Australia will eliminate tariffs on some 96 percent of commodities traded with ASEAN countries by next year while New Zealand will remove tariff barriers on some 90 percent of commodities from ASEAN countries by 2012.

VietNamNet/VOV/Xinhuanet