The World Economic Forum is an independent
organization. Its aim is to help businesses, governments and civil society find
ways to work together to improve the world.
This
year, the twenty-first World Economic Forum on East Asia is taking place in
Thailand. Organizers hope to bring attention to development in Southeast Asia.
But the
presence of Burmese opposition leader and parliament member Aung San Suu Kyi
has made the event special. The Nobel Prize winner made her first foreign trip
in over twenty years to the Thai capital, Bangkok. Burmese President Thein Sein cancelled his
appearance at the meeting shortly after her travel plans were announced.
Earlier, she also recorded a message for the forum.
AUNG
SAN SUU KYI: “I have the honor and privilege of addressing this gathering of
thinkers and doers, movers and shakers, in positions to influence the direction
that our world will take in the foreseeable future.”
Klaus
Schwab started what came to be called the World Economic Forum and is its
executive chairman. In opening comments, he praised the growing influence of
Southeast Asian nations in the world economy and political issues.
KLAUS
SCHWAB: “When you look at the ASEAN region, you feel that here you have a
region which is full of dynamism, which has economic growth of over five
percent and which becomes more and more a crucial factor in the world economic
and world political context.”
Several
government leaders were in Bangkok for the meeting. They include Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The
forum is meant to discuss issues affecting the ten members of ASEAN, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In a speech, the Thai prime minister
noted threats like the debt crisis in Europe and climate change. But she also
pointed to technological progress, democratic reforms and new centers of
economic growth as signs of hope.
ASEAN
nations are becoming increasingly important in the world economy. As a group,
their economic activity is nearing two trillion dollars. Southeast Asian
economies are expected to grow more than five percent this year. That rate is higher than Europe or North
America.
World
Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy is also attending the meetings.
He said Southeast Asia is doing better than other areas now. But he warned a
slowing world economy could create problems.
PASCAL
LAMY: "I would expect, given what's happening in other parts of the world
economy, (for) this region to be more affected in two, three years to come than
it has been so far."
Mario
Ritter.
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