ASEAN can become world economy driver again — PBBM
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is hopeful that the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) can be the main driver of the global economy again, just like what it was pre-pandemic.
Sharing his observations during his debut at the ASEAN Summits, Marcos said members of the regional bloc seem "to agree" that Southeast Asian countries are still able to be the driver of the economy in the next year or two.
During the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits in Cambodia, Marcos said he and his fellow state leaders talked about recovering the economy from the pandemic.
"There are very many similar problems ," the President said in a press conference on Sunday night after the conclusion of the summits in Phnom Penh.
"We talked about preparing for the next pandemic. What do we do about scarcity of—rather the prices of food, of fertilizer, energy. What are we going to do about it? What can we do about it? How do we get around it?" he added.
Marcos noted that big and developed countries are now taking time to participate at ASEAN Summits with its dialogue partners because "ASEAN is very very important."
"That just shows you how central really to the economic planning the ASEAN is," he said, adding there are no more "emerging markets" because the world's economy is now "chaotic."
What he learned from the gathering was that neighboring countries have commonalities, Marcos said.
" should not really be surprising, considering that...we're all from the same area," he said.
On the geopolitical side, Southeast Asian countries shared the same concern on North Korea's missile launches, the Cross-Strait tension of Taiwan and China and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
ASEAN neighbors also worried about fertilizer supplies and the rising food and oil prices, the President noted.
"That generally was the theme of everything that we spoke about," he said.
Marcos said he was "happy" that he participated at his first ASEAN Summit as it was "very useful" and "absolutely critical."
"First time ko makapunta sa ASEAN (It was my first time at the ASEAN Summit). So it's a learning experience for me, but also it was particularly significant because this is the first time they have had the ASEAN meetings face-to-face since the pandemic began," he said.