Hun Sen calls for protection of migrant workers in ASEAN

Everyday.com.kh,10 May 2012

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) -Prime Minister Hun Sen urged Southeast Asia Thursday to protect migrant workers as labor markets are liberalized with the formation of the ASEAN Community in 2015. Speaking at a meeting of ASEAN labor ministers, he said that protecting and promoting the rights of migrant workers was crucial since the free flow of skilled labor was key to the future ASEAN Economic Community. “Broadening cooperation among ASEAN member states is needed to protect migrant workers,” the prime minister said. Hun Sen, who currently chairs the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, noted that ASEAN had already done some work in the area but had not yet reached agreement. As regional economic integration focuses on flows of skilled workers, the prime minister said the challenge was to protect less skilled and unskilled workers. “We should encourage the protection of migrant workers which is in line with the ASEAN statement on human rights to be adopted this year,” he said.

Asia Economic Forum kicks off in Cambodia, focuses on ASEAN community building

PHNOM PENH, March 17 (Xinhua) — The 8th Asia Economic Forum kicked off here on Saturday, focusing on reviewing the ASEAN achievements in the past 45 years and looking at opportunities and challenges toward the realization of an ASEAN community by 2015.

The two-day forum has been attending by some 300 economists, academics, researchers, and policy makers from Asian countries.

Haruhisa Handa, advisor to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and chairman of Asia Economic Forum, said the forum, under the theme “ASEAN in the Evolving Regional Architecture: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Direction”, aimed at examining how ASEAN has been able to develop and transform itself in the past 45 years of its existence.

It would also look at ways to enhance ASEAN’s centrality in the evolving regional architecture and identify ASEAN’s future priorities and challenges toward the realization of an ASEAN community by 2015, he said.

Moreover, the forum would deliberate on how ASEAN can strategically best engage its dialogue partners in the coming years, and at the same time to play a positive role in its relations with the major powers in the region.

Speaking at the opening of the forum, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon, Minister of Economy and Finance, said the ASEAN has made tremendous progress in all areas of cooperation in the last 45 years, but challenges are still ahead toward the community.

“Since its inception in 1967, the ASEAN has not only accelerated the pace of diplomatic prominence, the rise of its profile internationally, but has also had a great impact on major power relations in the region and the wider world,” he said. ” The bloc has achieved many goals, but with those successes, it does not mean there are no challenges.”

He said ASEAN needed to strengthen its participatory capacity in global solution cooperation reflecting the contribution of ASEAN to global affairs, in which prestige and role of ASEAN will be further enhanced at international arena.

Those global affairs include economic crisis, climate change, natural disaster management, prevention and combat of contagious disease as well as fighting against crime and cross border terrorism, he said.

In addition, the minister said, ASEAN has to speed up the process of dividing development gap among ASEAN member countries, which is prerequisite requirement to ensure regional competitiveness and rationalization of regional integration and implementation of action plan of ASEAN integration initiatives.

“ASEAN is an important player in the region among other successful organizations in the world. I strongly believe that ASEAN community will be realized in next two years,” he said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.