IMT-GT leaders okay cooperation plan
Leaders of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) yesterday endorsed the implementation of a blueprint for cooperation over the next five years.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesia’s Vice President Boediono held the 20th IMT-GT summit on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Phnom Penh yesterday.
According to the blueprint, the three will work together and speed up the development of infrastructure linking them up with each other as well as the rest of Southeast Asia. The three nations will also standardise their regulations in accordance with Asean integration.
The three leaders have assigned ministers to hold a meeting some time this year in Indonesia to further discuss the issue. The blueprint of implementation for 2012-2016 includes projects on infrastructure development, transportation, trade, investment, agriculture, industry, environment, tourism, food industry and human resource development.
Initiated in 1993, the IMT-GT is a cooperation development scheme to speed up economic development in this sub-region. Since all its members are part of the Asean, the IMT-GT has the same ultimate goal as the grouping, a statement issued after the meeting said yesterday. The implementation plan would be a supplement to the Asean Economic Community in 2015, it added.
During the Asean summit, Yingluck praised the grouping for helping maintain peace, stability and prosperity in the region. Asean has had to deal with new issues such as trans-border crime and the laundering of money.
On the economic front, she said, Asean needed to enhance cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region as other parts of the world such as Europe are in recession.
Yingluck also emphasised maritime cooperation among regional countries and their dialogue partners in order to deal with the new concerns of piracy and maritime environment. She said that maritime security was of mutual benefit to all countries and should be kept separate from disputes over sovereignty, referring to the South China Sea dispute involving several countries in the region.
