ASEAN To Adopt Public-Private Partnership Guideline

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- ASEAN will be adopting the Public-Private Partnership guideline to mobilise resources from the private sector in fulfilling the funding needs for infrastructure development in the region. ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh said the region needed US$100 billion a year from 2010 to 2020 for infrastructure development while investments from public sector and dialogue partners were forecast to only accommodate US$47 billion to US$50 billion a year. "It will not be enough. We need to be able to mobilise our resources from the private sector," he told selected media in conjunction with the 26th ASEAN Summit hosted in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi beginning Sunday. While acknowledging ASEAN members' commitment towards the building process of ASEAN Community, Le also expressed his concerns over the lack of awareness among ASEAN people on the creation of the community. "Very often the people take it as if the community that we are building is only the ASEAN Economic Community. "That is why in the post-2015 vision that we are developing now, is for ASEAN to continue the process of community consolidation and integration and centred element with a vision of ensuring a concerted balance and sustained progress on all the three pillars of the community - socio-cultural, political-security and economy," he said. He added that with the establishment of that ASEAN Community, the region should have a community with political co-vision, economic integration and caring and sharing society. Meanwhile, on Timor Leste admission into ASEAN, Le said three studies were being carried out on the impact of Timor Leste entry into the grouping. "The moment we have the conclusion of the studies, we will decide on when Timor Leste can be admitted to ASEAN," he said. Established in 1967, ASEAN comprises 10 countries, namely Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. -- BERNAMA