Young Asians push for integration in the region

Think Asean, say participants at Hitachi Young Leaders' Initiative

Asian youth, some destined to become their nations' leaders, last week called on Asian countries to overcome their differences to reach integration and urged them to work on practical cooperation.

"Asia in the future will be more and more closely connected because we have realised the need to integrate. To achieve that we need to overcome a challenge, which is the difference between us," said Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, a Vietnamese student.

Differences might arise in terms of political, social and economic patterns, experience, ways of thinking and ways of doing things, she said. But the region must choose common links between its citizens - like designs for prosperous development, their economies and culture in an attempt to find a common voice.

"There is a lot of talk about cooperation in Asia but it's not practical enough to reach solutions. I hope we can be more realistic in the future," said Toshihisa Aoyagi, a university student from Japan.

Donald anak Stephen, a Malaysian student said: "Now, the Asean Economic Community is not really that effective. In the future I would like to see us move as a whole region."

Quynh pointed out that Asians should "Think Asean", seeing and treating citizens in other Asean countries as if they were brothers and sisters. "We should treat each other the way we want to be treated."

Pondrhat Unphang, a Thai student said the challenge for Asia would be integration because nowadays people are still in conflict. There were also challenges from superpowers like China and the US. "So, the leaders in the future should really focus on the region. Maybe we have to be a balance between the two powers. The balance may come from cooperating on expertise rather than community integration. Asean can be like a hub with the powers balanced."

Three other representatives from Thailand to join the discussion included Preeyanut Tiankanon, Paopatchara Kaewsarn and Pansak Chokchoaroj.

They were among 28 youngsters selected from seven countries - Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia - to join the 11th Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative hosted by Hitachi in Hanoi under the theme of A New Stage for |Asia.

The young people discussed four challenging issues for the region - sustainable transportation and mobility, seeking sustainable energy options, moving towards an economically integrated community and moving towards a secure community.

After a week of discussion with leaders - including a deputy prime minister and top officials from Vietnam, a Bangkok governor, a Japanese professor and officials from Malaysia and Indonesia, they put forward proposals urging ways to deal with the issues.

To cope with sustainable transportation and mobility, they said nations should pursue different strategies based on their present transportation-infrastructure development stages.

Regional integration - in technology transfer or public/private partnership - would be instru-mental in achieving sustainabi-|lity goals and addressing future needs.

They urged every nation to commit to reasonable legally binding targets in sustainable energy options and participating in international forums. Developed countries could transfer technologies to help others realise their full alternative energy potential.

Compliance with policies required action by households and businesses, to be provided with incentives to adopt energy efficient practices. Tax incentives and disincentives should be in place to steer companies towards energy efficiency.

To achieve an economically |integrated community, delegates wanted policy-makers to cater to the needs of each nation - flexible targets involving the reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers.

This would accommodate developing countries suffering resource constraints and human deficiencies in resources and infrastructure.

They said the regional food equation could only be solved if citizens took part. The Asian Integrated Food Security framework outlined a solution for governments and the private sector to address food security in the short and long term.

Yoichi Yamano, a senior manager, said Hitachi would share the proposals of the leaders of Asia and Asean with the students at the discussion.

Takashi Kawamura, Hitachi's chairman, said the programme had been held since 1996 to foster the spirit of young leaders and give them an opportunity to discuss the issues, problems and challenges in the region.