Message

Summary

I have a couple of thoughts on connectivity in the Association of Southeast Nations, or ASEAN.

The first is that an ASEAN Community, including an ASEAN Economic Community, which ASEAN has proclaimed as a goal, cannot be realized without connectivity, without the connectivity as comprehensively conceived in the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity. Connectivity is essential for achieving ASEAN's objectives of closer political cohesion, deeper economic integration, and more effective regional cooperation. Connectivity has to be attained comprehensively, in all its three interdependent dimensions.

The leaders of the ASEAN member states, gathered at their annual summit meeting in Hanoi, adopted the Master Plan on 28 October 2010. In it, connectivity has three interconnected components — physical, institutional and people-to-people. Physical connectivity is the infrastructure required to link the ASEAN countries together, mainly in terms of transport, information and communications technology, and energy. Institutional connectivity consists of the measures agreed upon and implemented by governments to facilitate trade and investments within the region. People-to-people connectivity means personal exchanges through education, culture and tourism.

This is the second idea: that these three elements of the Master Plan are interrelated, interdependent and interconnected. Infrastructure is of little use if institutional, legal, practical and other barriers prevent trade, investment, information and people from flowing more freely over it. Trade, investment, information and people cannot flow more freely or flow at all if the requisite infrastructure is not improved or built. Infrastructure will not be built or improved and facilitating measures will not be agreed upon and carried out if people do not have contact with and know one another across national boundaries.

It is with these in mind that one should regard the chapters in this volume and the ASEAN Roundtable 2011 at which they were presented.