Asean Leaders To Endorse The Role Of Civil Service

From M. Saraswathi MANILA, April 27 (Bernama) -- The 30th Asean Summit will see eight outcome documents, which will include the ASEAN leaders’ declaration on the role of civil service as a catalyst for achieving ASEAN Community Vision 2025. “The declaration recognises the importance of civil service as the backbone of good governance within the ASEAN member state.” “It also supports the integration of ASEAN community, as well as strengthening capacity building programmes and sharing best practices,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary-General, Ramlan Ibrahim, said at a press conference here, Wednesday. Also present was Raszlan Abdul Rashid, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Prime Minister, Najib Razak, is leading the Malaysian delegation to the summit. He is accompanied by his wife, Rosmah Mansor. Also among the delegation are Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anifah Aman; Minister of International Trade and Industry, Mustapa Mohamed; and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Abdul Rahman Dahlan. Besides these, Ramlan said there would also be two outcome documents, each from the 10th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit and the 12th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area Summit . Najib will chair the 10th IMT-GT Summit. This year marks ASEAN’s Golden Jubilee, as ASEAN will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. Since its inception in 1967, ASEAN has achieved many milestones, among them, the establishment of the ASEAN Community 2015. “This has provided new opportunities for both the people of ASEAN and the broader global community to continue to enjoy peace, stability and prosperity in the ASEAN region,” he said. Hence, he said Malaysia will also be engaging in ASEAN and all its related meetings in order to provide sharper focus on the community building process. “It is to ensure that ASEAN community building process we have committed to will run its full course. At the moment, we have over 70 per cent completion. We are working closely with all the member states and working on where we could expedite to achieve the target,” he said. Meanwhile, Ramlan also did not dismiss the possibilities of leaders to discuss on issues such as the South China Sea and regional security. “Those issues are very much the subject of focus (of ASEAN) even in some other forums,” he said. -- BERNAMA