Del Rosario recommended that the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) senior officials discuss this matter as soon as possible and render a report in time for the APT Summit in November.


The 10-member ASEAN is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


The ASEAN Leaders’ aim to realize an ASEAN Community by 2015 calls for a well-connected region that will build a more competitive and resilient ASEAN when it converges peoples, goods, services, and capitals.


A better connected region is key to achieve the ASEAN Community as it reinforces the centrality of ASEAN, accelerate the community building process and integration efforts, and intensify its relations with external partners.


The Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, which was adopted by the ASEAN Leaders at the 17th ASEAN Summit on October 28, 2010 in Hanoi, Virtnam, identifies key strategies and actions to enhance the connection of the region in three dimensions: physical, institutional, and people-to-people connectivity. The Master Plan also details the priority projects to be carried out.


The concept of ASEAN Connectivity was mooted by the ASEAN Leaders at the 15th ASEAN Summit in October 2009 in Thailand. They observed that ASEAN has great potential to physically anchor itself as the transportation, information and communications technology (ICT), and tourism hub of the region. Enhanced connectivity between ASEAN Member States will encourage competitive growth; facilitate economies of agglomeration and integrated production networks; enhance intra-regional trade; and attract investments.


The improved linkages will promote deeper ties among ASEAN peoples, foster a sense of shared cultural and historical bonds, and as a result, intensify and strengthen ASEAN Community building efforts.


ASEAN Connectivity will also benefit the country when improved domestic linkages generate economic development that is supported by infrastructure and communications networks as well as the movement of people, goods, and services.


The Master Plan was developed by the High Level Task Force on ASEAN Connectivity which comprised nominated experts from the 10 ASEAN Member States, and supported by the ASEAN Secretariat.


The Master Plan was also developed with the cooperation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the World Bank.


Strategies in enhancing physical connectivity include the completion of hard infrastructure projects such as the ASEAN Highway Network and the Singapore Kunming Rail Link.


Institutional connectivity, meanwhile, comprises improvements to soft infrastructure such as strengthening institutional arrangements to liberalize the movements of goods, services and skilled professionals across the borders.


Strategies to intensify people-to-people interactions will be implemented through culture, education, and tourism initiatives.


China, Japan and Korea have expressed interest and support for the connectivity initiative.


“Notwithstanding tensions and certain hostilities in the region,” it has enjoyed relative stability in recent years," Del Rosario said, adding that one of the APT’s objective should be “to maintain peace and stability based on global norms” and that cooperation be based on “internationally-shared values.” (PNA)
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PHL proposes connectivity as priority area for ASEAN+3 Cooperation