DANANG, Vietnam — ASEAN leaders warned Wednesday of a widening gap between Southeast Asia’s richest and poorest nations that could threaten the region’s drive for a single market.
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have recorded high growth rates but their per capita gross domestic product remains the lowest among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“The danger of (a) widening development gap remains a major obstacle to ASEAN’s future development, especially given the context of expanded ASEAN economic integration,” Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in opening remarks to an annual meeting of the bloc’s trade and commerce ministers.
ASEAN is working towards establishing by 2015 a single market and manufacturing base of about 600 million people, a goal which was spurred by competition from China and India.
The gap between ASEAN’s rich and poor members “is quite wide” and could undermine efforts to create the single market, ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told reporters.
“A house divided by such a gap is not stable,” he told reporters. –(AFP)
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
