Thailand wants ASEAN to be relevant for the citizens by crafting a number of programs so that no one is left behind while it takes the helm of ASEAN as its chair in 2019.

Thai Ambassador to Indonesia Songkol Sukchan said there was a need to rethink strategy to make ASEAN relevant for citizens in Southeast Asia.

He said Indonesia had expressed strong support for Thai chairship as conveyed by Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi to his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai during their meeting on Dec. 31.

“Thailand is one of the founding members of ASEAN based on the Bangkok Declaration,” he said when opening a seminar titled ASEAN 2019 Under Thai Chairmanship organized by IPMI International Business School in South Jakarta on Wednesday.

Songkol said the theme of the Thai chairmanship would be Advancing Partnership for Sustainability, which can be summed up in three principles of creativity, complementarity and continuity.

The first speaker, Thai Ambassador to ASEAN Pasporn Sangasubana, said that during its chairmanship, Thailand would align the ASEAN 2025 Vision with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 2030 especially in poverty reduction, infrastructure and connectivity, sustainable use of natural resources, sustainable consumption and resilience.

Phasporn said that “Advancing” meant future-orientation leading to a Digital ASEAN.

“We are continuing Singapore’s Smart City initiative which was launched in 2018,” she said, adding that it meant a continuity in policy, thus ensuring the policy sustainability.

Partnership was translated as enhancing connectivity, she said, “by connecting the connectivity to create a Seamless ASEAN.”

Phasporn said it was important to have sustainability in all dimensions, ensuring a Sustainable ASEAN.

She said that Thailand aimed to have concrete deliverables in the form of six ASEAN centers dealing with sustainable development studies and dialogue; active ageing and innovation; cybersecurity capacity-building in cooperation with Japan; military medicine; culture; and social work and social welfare.

The second speaker, Isra Sunthornvut, secretary-general of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly warned that there was an indifference among the people toward ASEAN.

“There is a gap between the people and leaders of what are the benefits of ASEAN for the people,” he said.

“We need local voices to translate ASEAN to the people, to bridge the gap between the people and the leaders.”

Closing the seminar, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s director general for ASEAN affairs, Jose Tavares, acknowledged that ASEAN had yet to resonate with the people, who were not really aware of ASEAN.

Jose said it was important for the leaders to explain that all decisions being taken, such as on free trade, connectivity, were for the benefit and good of ASEAN people.

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