NAN-H-55
Cooperation
By Temitope Ponle
Aug. 8, 2017 (NAN) Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Harry Purwanto, has called for enhanced bilateral relations between Nigeria and the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Purwanto made the call at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of ASEAN at the Vietnamese Embassy in Abuja on Tuesday.
The envoy told newsmen that Nigeria and countries in ASEAN could take advantage of available technology to address challenges experienced in the various areas of relations.
“Nigeria’s relationship with southeast Asian countries is very robust but the challenge we are facing is distance; because of distance every country has its challenge.
“We have strong aviation sector in southeast Asia but if you talk about direct flights to Africa, it is not as aggressive.
“There are many strong areas in southeast Asia like aviation, agriculture, industry, SMEs, maritime; these are among the areas that we can tap into and develop in our bilateral relationships with Nigeria”, he said.
In her address, Ms. Shirley Ho-Vicarit, Philippines Ambassador to Nigeria, said that part of the objectives of ASEAN was to enhance cooperation with global partners.
Ho-Vicarit said such cooperation would promote the quality of lives of people globally.
“Today as we mark the golden anniversary of ASEAN, our third chairmanship since its birth in 1967, we are very proud to tell the world that change really has come to our countries.
“Engaging the world in economic stability is one of the pride of the ASEAN community. We constitute one-third of our GNP to the whole world; we constitute one-third of the world,” Ho-Vicarit said.
ASEAN, was established on Aug. 8, 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Brunei Darussalam then joined on Jan. 7, 1984, Viet Nam on July 28, 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on July 23, 1997, and Cambodia on April 30, 1999, making up the ten member states of ASEAN.
ASEAN is both the world’s seventh-largest market and third-largest labor force, and has been projected to become the fourth-largest economic bloc by 2030.
The group also established the ASEAN Economic Community in 2016 to create a single market and production base, facilitating closer economic, political, social, and cultural cooperation. (NAN)
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edited by Sadiya Hamza