ASEAN BEGINS CONSULTATIONS WITH DIALOGUE PARTNERS

By D. Arul Rajoo

HUA HIN (Thailand), Oct 24 (Bernama) -- The 10-member Asean Saturday resumed its
annual consultations with four major dialogue partners here, with the focus on
the various mechanisms to enhance connectivity, financial cooperation and
stepping up of regional trade.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who arrived here last
night after delivering the 2010 national budget in Parliament in Kuala Lumpur,
joined his colleagues at the Asean Leaders Retreat at the Dusit Thani Hotel.

Najib will also have bilateral talks with new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama and Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda.

The Asean leaders are finally meeting their dialogue partners after several
postponements. Planned summits with China, Japan, South Korea and India, as well
as the East Asian Summit (EAS) that also involves Australia and New Zealand,
could not be held last February during the 14th Asean Summit here due the
domestic commitments of the dialogue partners.

When the leaders finally arrived for the EAS last April in Pattaya,
anti-government protesters stormed the meeting venue, forcing its cancellation.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, host of the 15th Asean Summit, is
leading the other Asean leaders at the 12th Asean-China Summit with Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao.

Officials said the focus of the meeting with the world's fastest-growing
economy and an important trading partner focuses on the establishment of the
China-Asean funds on investment cooperation and on commercial credit, to which
China has pledged to contribute US$10 billion (US$1 = RM3.38) and US$15 billion,
respectively.

The leaders will also sign three memorandums of understanding, on
establishing the Asean-China Centre, on strengthening cooperation in the field
of standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment, and on
cooperation in the field of intellectual property.

The Asean leaders will then have an opportunity to meet Yukio, who is
attending his first Asean-Japan Summit, where he is expected to deliberate more
on his proposal that countries in the East Asian region should form the East
Asian Community.

The meeting with South Korea is expected to touch on regional cooperation,
with low carbon green growth initiatives as one of the areas.

The seventh Asean–India Summit is taking place two months after both sides
signed the Trade in Goods Agreement, leading to a revision of the bilateral
trade target to US$70 billion in 2011.

-- BERNAMA