The ASEAN Purpose

The purpose of a great leader, to govern and build bridges that will help his country to progress, along with the citizen. So, ASEAN was born and it was brought partly by the ideology to attain peace, unity and shared societies resulting in a progressive nation not only within its members but also within the countries. Apart from the objective of broadening economic integration of the ten Member Countries of ASEAN, a serious challenge facing ASEAN is how to narrow the development gap among its members to quicken the pace of integration. It is not an easy task since the stages of political, educational, social and economic development in ASEAN vary, such that there are countries that cannot cope with all the requirements of regional integration.

Moreover, ASEAN needs to narrow the development gaps not only among ASEAN member countries, but also the gaps within each member country. Support for the development of sub-regional growth areas will facilitate bridging these development gaps. Furthermore, government must harmonize and resolve finally with other countries by eliminating poverty and diversity. As the saying goes “external problems can never be solved if there are conflicts within themselves,” so government should focus first on the problems inside their territory so that the key to another level can be obtained, and it would be easy to cope with the development among countries.

The overall objective of the Philippine Chairmanship of ASEAN is not only to engage with ASEAN Leaders in exchanging views and resolving issues affecting community building efforts but also to bring ASEAN’s activities to the common people in the grassroots level and make them better understand and appreciate ASEAN. The Chairmanship’s vision is directed towards … “a conscious community of its diverse cultures and bound by a common regional awareness, where people strive for equitable access to opportunities specially education and knowledge for total human development regardless of gender, race, religion, language, or social and cultural background.”

Having different philosophies in life is not a problem but a challenge that our leaders have carried the torch of guidance – which leads to solve by empowering and sustaining the momentum of equitable rights and responsibility blending unlike notions to create dynamic answers to the problems of every human kind. As the atmosphere happening within the countries of ASEAN, it meets with the upcoming ASEAN summit that may help to promote common values and norms connecting diverse cultures to bridge the future of a new generation of safe, peaceful, united and progressive society.

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