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SINGAPORE: Ministers from the 10-nation Association
of Southeast Asian Nations Asean) are expected to hammer out
possible solutions to rising oil and food prices amid warnings
inflation could threaten political stability, officials said.
The problem, if left unchecked,
could pose a challenge to the region’s long-term aim of evolving
into a European Union-style community where goods and services are
freely traded across the region by 2015, they said.
At meetings to begin Sunday
night, the ministers were to discuss “the growing challenge posed
by rising oil and food prices, which pose a serious challenge to our
people’s welfare as well as our countries’ continued economic
development,” according to a draft joint communiqué obtained by
the Agence France-Presse.
The ministers were expected to
push for more concerted cooperation “to ensure the efficient
functioning of market forces,” as well as come up with a
longer-term solution to help members become more independent
agriculturally, the draft said.
Foreign ministers from Asean
countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are to meet for
ministerial talks on Sunday.
Their discussions lead up to the
region’s main security meeting, with dialogue partners including
the United States, on Thursday.
Prices of basic commodities
across the region, including the staple rice, have risen steeply
amid a supply crunch coupled with surging world oil prices.
Rice-importing countries such as
the Philippines have particularly felt the pressure. President
Gloria Arroyo recently ordered the military’s intelligence service
to check on groups that may exploit the issue and create
“disturbances.”
Singapore Foreign Minister George
Yeo, who chairs the meeting, said in an interview that there is
interest in Asean to ensure rice is sold within the bloc first if
there is a price spike or shortage.
Asean members Thailand and
Vietnam are the world’s top two rice exporters.
“There’s no reason why, as
Southeast Asia, we should be exporting our rice to the world when
there are parts of the region that are short of rice,” Yeo said in
an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
Asean Secretary-General Surin
Pitsuwan told reporters during a visit to Manila recently that trade
and finance ministers from the region have separately been working
on a food security plan.
“[The ministers] have
deliberated on this, and how to make this relevant because of the
oil price,” he said, noting that stocks of rice remain sound at
the moment.
“The panic gear is over and the
[price of] rice has gone down,” he stressed. “The issue of food
security is being revisited, recalibrated and analyzed.”
Another senior Southeast Asian
official separately said Asean has agreed in principle to hold a
food summit proposed by Indonesia for later this year.
Military-ruled Myanmar will
officially accede next week to the Asean Charter, which commits
Southeast Asian nations to notions of democracy and human rights,
Yeo said.
Myanmar’s accession means just
three of Asean‘s 10 members still need to ratify the deal.
“That leaves Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines,” Yeo said.
Asean ministers were also
expected to reiterate commitments to “push ahead” with free
trade agreements (FTAs) with dialogue partners Australia and New
Zealand, the EU and India, the draft said.
Asean was also “looking
forward” to the early entry into force of a comprehensive economic
partnership agreement with Japan, it said.
“Besides economic benefits, the
FTAs between Asean and its dialogue partners are also strategic
linkages that will bind our regions even closer together,” it
said.
--AFP
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