ASEAN leaders have adopted the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity to improve infrastructure and institutional as well as people-to-people relations, setting a pool of funds to finance infrastructure projects across the region.
“The leaders decide to establish a coordinating committee to oversee the implementation of the master plan,” Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Thursday.
“The leaders welcome efforts by the ASEAN financial minister toward the establishment of the ASEAN infrastructure fund,” he read out the declaration.
While all leaders attended the first day of the two-day summit, Indonesia’s Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa represented President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was visiting the tsunami-stricken Mentawai Islands. Yudhoyono will join leaders from ASEAN and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand on Saturday at the East Asia Summit and the closing ceremony where he will accept ASEAN chairmanship from Vietnam. Officials say there will be 17 to 19 projects,
worth around US$380 billion, that will include railways, roads and broadband connections, to bolster ASEAN connectivity.
Part of the projects would be financed by multinational financial organizations, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, donor countries and ASEAN partners such as Japan and China.
As the region is ready with its master plan, Indonesia is struggling to establish its national master plan to boost connections among its regions and sprawling islands as talks between ministries and the regional administration to finalize the draft of the plan continue.
“Hopefully we can finish our own master plan by the end of the year. We’ll try to match our national plan with ASEAN’s,” Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said.
According to the preliminary national draft, Indonesia will concentrate on reaching out to isolated islands by increasing the number of ships operating throughout the archipelago while building more seaports and airports.
Mari said Indonesia would not wait for its national master plan to be agreed upon to begin its connectivity project, as the government had seven pilot projects on the table to launch. The projects include the procurement of a ferry for connecting small islands and improving electricity transmissions from one area to another.
ASEAN leaders also agreed on enhancement of human resources and skill development to speed economic recovery; maintain sustainability and strengthen cooperation to deal with food and security, climate change, natural disasters and infectious diseases.
