NAYPYIDAW

ASEAN leaders are keen to raise the profile of ASEAN Young Entrepreneurs and ASEAN women to encourage economic and social change as well as the development of micro small and medium-sized enterprises following a meeting with the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC) yesterday.

The Media Secretariat for the 25th ASEAN Summit released a statement saying leaders also exchanged views on promoting ASEAN connectivity with representatives of ABAC during the meeting,

Earlier before the meeting took place, a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said leaders would discuss issues in an earlier report which had been submitted by the ASEAN-BAC to economic ministers.

“The elements in the meetings include recommending ways to improve the business and investment climate in ASEAN member countries,” said the official who did not want to be named.

“They will be discussing on matters they find the leaders should pay attention to in terms of improving the business climate in ASEAN,” the official said.

In an effort to promote youth participation in entrepreneurial activities, ASEAN BAC recognises the need to establish a platform to foster networking and share best practices amongst young entrepreneurs in the region, information on the ASEAN BAC website read.

The ASEAN Young Entrepreneurs Network (AYEN) was designed to promote the inclusion of youth in the AEC through ASEAN BAC’s flagship programmes.

On the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the Myanmar senior government official said leaders of the regional bloc are very optimistic about achieving the highly-rated regional integration by next year.

“Based on statistics, leaders are very positive they can meet with the target of AEC by 2015. They said the targets are challenging. But the leaders are very positive based on yesterday’s meetings. The 20 per cent of the remaining scorecard while challenging, they said, are achievable,” she said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Laila Utama Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Razak, in a speech after accepting the Chairmanship of ASEAN 2015, assured Malaysia’s commitment to meet the deadline of AEC.

“Malaysia will assume as Chairman of ASEAN next year at a historic time. 2015, ASEAN’s new era begins as we establish the ASEAN community. The culmination of five decades of regional building,” he said.

“Our main priority in 2015 will be to work towards the completion of the roadmap for an ASEAN Community. Malaysia plans to drive ASEAN towards several goals in the year ahead.”

The Brunei Times