With relations becoming increasingly complex among ASEAN member states and their trading partners, Jakarta’s role is set to expand further, becoming a regional hub for economic and diplomatic activity.

University of Indonesia international relations lecturer Hariyadi Wirawan said that as the largest ASEAN nation, Indonesia was the natural choice for the location of the regional body’s Secretariat.

“Jakarta provides everything,” he said, noting that there had been no complaints from other ASEAN member states regarding Indonesia’s central position since the establishment of the Secretariat in Jakarta in 1976.

ASEAN deputy secretary-general Bagas Hapsoro expressed his desire to see Jakarta become the “Brussels of the East”, increasing in power and relevance under the new Charter.

“ASEAN is the cornerstone of Indonesian foreign policy,” he said Monday. “We need to have a good Secretariat to facilitate member states. We would like to be a good host.”

He added that Jakarta would need to learn from other great host cities of the world such as Brussels, New York and Geneva.

Currently, the Secretariat receives an estimated US$1.4 million annually from each ASEAN member state. Housed in an impressive eight-storey building built during the Soeharto era, the Secretariat continues to receive support from the Indonesian government via fully subsidized land tenure at its location in the affluent of Kebayoran Baru subdistrict in South Jakarta.

Expansion of the Secretariat’s land area remains a possibility.

Bagas says “there was an offer from the Indonesian government to acquire the building next door”, but that this was “still under discusion” with various government departments.

At present, the Secretariat employs 200 local Indonesian staff and 60 openly recruited staff members.

However, this number is predicted to increase with Jakarta’s enhanced role under the new Charter.

By comparison, the EU employs 14,000 people serving 27 members with a smaller combined population, Bagas said. To attract qualified staff and develop high-quality facilities, the challenge for the Secretariat will be to better manage its budget and to communicate its vision to the government and people of Indonesia.

Despite Jakarta’s underdeveloped transportation infrastructure and 2009 terror attacks on international targets such as the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels, Bagas maintains that Jakarta had a lot to offer foreign visitors in terms of competitive facilities, and expressed hopes that Jakarta residents could learn to be good hosts to the international organization.

“There will be a lot of meetings, not only in Jakarta but also in other cities”, he said, adding that the whole nation would need to get involved when Jakarta becomes the host city of ASEAN for 2011.

Observers, however, have raised concerns over the Secretariat’s capability to facilitate growing ASEAN activities, with some 1,000 meetings and conferences held in one year, and the grouping’s ambitious target of turning the 10 ASEAN countries into a fully integrated community by 2015.

Critics have also argued that ASEAN remains merely a “talk shop” despite the rhetoric of developing a stronger legal framework through the 2008 Charter.

Bagas maintains that the organization had been actively facilitating peace through dialogue among member states, with the stability of relations between Southeast Asian states a testament to the efficacy of ASEAN.

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