The 15th ASEAN Summit will officially commence on 23 October 2009 in Cha-am, Hua Hin with an opening ceremony at 9.45 hrs at Dusit Thani Hotel. In addition to other engagements with civil society, ASEAN Leaders will have an Informal Working Dinner on the same day, followed by a Leaders’ Retreat and meetings with dialogue partners on 24-25 October 2009. This will provide the ASEAN Leaders with an opportunity to discuss current progress and the direction of future cooperation as well as to prepare for the meetings with dialogue partners.
The official theme for the Summit is “Enhancing Connectivity, Empowering Peoples”, which underlines the importance attached to the improvement of connectivity, both physically and spiritually, as well as the betterment of the lives of all ASEAN people. The discussions will give attention to such topics as the promotion of educational and cultural cooperation. More specifically:
1. Connectivity and educational cooperation: The Leaders will discuss ways to improve connectivity within ASEAN and the region. This will encompass both physical connectivity such as communication infrastructure and networks, as well as people-to-people contacts through educational and cultural cooperation. The latter should help promote better understanding on the basis of shared culture and history, as well as boost competitiveness of ASEAN peoples in the globalised world.
2. Climate change: The Leaders will continue their discussions from the Climate Change Summit held in September 2009 on the sidelines of the 64th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, and prepare for the Meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in December this year in Copenhagen, Denmark. The meetings will emphasise the common position of ASEAN, which is one of the most important groupings in the developing world, in order to protect the interest of ASEAN and other developing countries on such issues as financial burden of the climate change efforts (Climate Change Financing) as well as cooperation on related technologies.
3. Economic and financial cooperation: The Leaders will discuss the global financial and economic crisis with the aim of expediting the establishment of Chiang Mai Initiative Multilaterisation (CMIM). They will also touch on the proposal to establish an East Asia Free Trade Area (EAFTA), which will be discussed further with China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea in the ASEAN+3 Summit.
4. Disaster and pandemic management: The Leaders will discuss ways to strengthen cooperation on disaster and pandemic management. This should include such cooperation as capacity building as well as vaccine R&D.
5. Food and energy security: The Leaders will discuss measures to safeguard against food and energy crises, as well as the use of agricultural land for production of bio-energy. Special attention will be given to the establishment of an ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve, cooperation on R&D and transfer of technology, as well as further investment in the fields of agriculture and alternative energy, with an emphasis on bio-energy.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th