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View all search resultsTime to step on the gas, not to hit the brakes
With the ASEAN Economic Community creating more jobs for the people of Southeast Asia, ASEAN is also ensuring that migrant workers are protected
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C
anada and Southeast Asia are divided by the Pacific Ocean, but they are linked by people-to-people, cultural and commercial ties and an array of shared interests that reach across geographical barriers.
Harmony in diversity and inclusivity are as fundamental to the ASEAN Community as they are to Canada. Canada has two official languages and is home to people from more than 200 ethnic origins and speakers of more than 200 other languages. This diversity is spread across Canada and has many connections to Southeast Asia.
For instance, there are 27,000 Indonesian language speakers in Canada, and Tagalog is among the most spoken languages in Calgary, one of Canada’s largest cities, because of its large Filipino diaspora. Canada is proud of its vibrant and diverse culture and works hard to ensure inclusivity within its borders and also in its engagement with all of its partners, including ASEAN.
During the current unprecedented challenges we face as a global community, I’ve witnessed the active response of the longstanding ASEAN-Canada partnership. This has been made possible by the nature of ASEAN’s partnership mechanism, which puts the needs of its people at the forefront.
As an ASEAN partner, Canada has been able to learn from ASEAN’s commendable efforts in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. This case has been particularly showcased by Vietnam, which has done a great job in keeping the number of confirmed cases low and successfully treating those who have fallen ill. Further, Canada is grateful to the Government of Vietnam and the nation’s airlines for helping diplomatic missions assist our citizens wishing to return home by ensuring continued departure flights and other services. Vietnam has shown us its commendable leadership in the international community, as chair of ASEAN and as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
In June, I had the honor to hand over 90,000 surgical masks to the ASEAN Secretariat as part of the 690,000 masks requested by ASEAN member states from Canada. This was made possible through the ASEAN-Canada Mitigation of Biological Threats Program, which has also delivered more than C$20 million (US$14 million) in programming since 2013 to strengthen ASEAN’s capacities to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.
In addition, this collaboration has supported our two regions in tracking the spread of COVID-19 through the use of Toronto-based big data software BlueDot, which combines artificial intelligence, public health, medical expertise and advanced data analytics to track, contextualize and anticipate infectious disease risks to develop national mitigation, preparedness and response measures. This specific partnership is just one of the many that define how Canada and ASEAN are forging ahead.
