Hanoi (VNA)🐲 – The ASEAN Community will consolidate ASEAN’s stature and pioneer role in regional and international arena, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said.

At a meeting with some 120 university students in Phnom Penh on January 4, he said the ASEAN Community, officially set up on December 31, 2015, will help promote the regional stability, peace and security while enhancing the bloc’s core role in the region. ASEAN has been recognised as the most successful regional organisation, he added. The Deputy PM noted that opportunities to be brought about by the community focus on a common production base and market with the free flow of goods, services, investment, capital and skilled labour. However, the ASEAN Community will face such challenges as development gap, shortage of skilled labourers in the new member nations, and lack of budget for ASEAN connectivity development including physical connectivity, institutional connectivity and people-to-people connectivity. Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-VNA