MANILA,
Philippines - President Aquino will
leave for Phnom Penh, Cambodia, tonight to join other leaders at the 20th
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit where he will again seek
support for the Philippine initiative in the South China Sea and the promotion of protection and
welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), among other concerns.
The
theme of this year’s Asean Summit, to be
held on April 3 and April 4, is “Asean: One Community, One Destiny” and
celebrates the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Asean.
At the
plenary session on April 3, the leaders will discuss the Phnom Penh
Declaration, and the progress of implementation of the Asean Charter and road
map for the Asean community under the political security, economic and
socio-cultural pillars.
They
will also tackle the progress of implementation of the master plan on Asean
connectivity, which involves physical, institutional and people-to-people
connectivity, and realizing a drug-free Asean by 2015, among other items.
That
same day, the Asean leaders will meet with the Asean Inter-Parliamentary
Assembly representatives, the Civil Society Organizations representatives and
the youth representatives and they will have an audience with His Majesty
Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia.
During
the Asean leaders’ retreat on April 4, they will exchange views on
international and regional issues, and on the implementation of the declaration
on the Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
In a
media briefing for Malacañang reporters before the weekend, Foreign Assistant
Secretary Teresita Barsana said that Mr. Aquino will seek support for the
Philippines’s proposed Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship and Cooperation in
the South China Sea during the leaders’ retreat.
According
to Barsana, the President will also have the opportunity to raise his concerns
about North Korea’s planned missile launch during the retreat.
After
the concluding session of the Asean Summit, he
will join three of his
counterparts in the 8th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth
Area (BIMP-Eaga) Summit.
Expected
to be on the table during the BIMP-Eaga Summit are the core strategic targets
of the BIMP-Eaga within the next five years in enhanced transport, power and
communication connectivity, food-basket strategy in agri-business and fisheries
development, tourism development and environment and natural resource
development.
Before
returning to Manila, Mr. Aquino will meet with the Filipino community in
Cambodia, which hosts an estimated 3,000 Filipinos, 2,000 of whom live in the
capital and work in the medical field, the business sector and in
non-governmental organizations.
Mia
Gonzalez
BusinessMirror
Business & Investment Opportunities
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