Dr. Balaz Szantos from the Faculty of Political Science at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University. (Photo: VNA)The summits take place, virtually, as the region is facing challenges in multiple areas, from the severe COVID-19 resurgence to geopoliticaluncertainties.
The COVID-19 still poses the biggest challenge toSoutheast Asia, Szantos said. “While vaccination is underway, the public healthemergency remains,” he noted, adding that “ASEAN leaders will have to startworking out a framework for economic recovery.”
According to him, key regional economies have been criticallyweakened by the pandemic and it will require both a strong vision and ASEANcooperation to create a recovery process where countries don’t pursue shortterm economic gains at the expense of each other.
He took tourism – a key industry in many states –as an example, saying that it is important that efforts to promote the returnof tourism should not be done with adversity to other ASEAN members.
He called on ASEAN to focus on developing aconsensus-based recovery plan that ensures the bloc recovers as a collective.
“The pandemic offers an opportunity for ASEANstates to rethink their economies,” he continued. “Tourism has become adominant industry in many ASEAN countries, but the externalities it exposedthese economies to were neglected and growth allowed to forgo structuralreforms.”
He suggested ASEAN member states rebuild theireconomies in a more sustainable and diversified manner post-pandemic.
“I would think developing domestic purchasingpower is going to be very important: the pandemic showed the dangers of relyingheavily on foreign spending while supplying cheap labour,” the scholar said.
He suggested that ASEAN nations need to develop an economy that cansupport the country even if tourists decide to stay away, especially as it isquestionable whether travel patterns will ever return to the pre-pandemicstate.
Szantos stressed that advancing the economy to create astrong professional class and indigenous technology and industry would help thepopulation suffering declining purchasing power due to stagnant wages andincreasing living costs.
He went on to highlight the role of Vietnam as ASEAN Chairlast year, saying Vietnam held the chairmanship at a difficult time. “ButASEAN has so far weathered crisis without outright fracturing,” he said, “inthis sense Vietnam has accomplished its mission, which has been to hold theorganization together at a time where it was very tempting for member states tosimply look out for their own.”
“I think what ASEAN needs right now is to have arecovery plan that serves the interests of all member states and safeguardsASEAN from creeping influence through various debt trap scenarios,” he emphasized.
“It is going to be hard to refuse foreign economicassistance to achieve a speedy recovery, even if those come with significantstrings attached,” he explained, so “it is going to be important for ASEAN toadopt a framework that mitigates such threats, which includes advocacy againsttaking the ‘easy way out’ by subscribing to massive foreign loan programmes andfinding alternate models of recovery.”/.
VNA
