The Myanmar delegation led by Dr Wah Wah Maung, Eminent Person (EP) of Myanmar and Deputy Minister for Investment and Foreign Economic Relations of the Republic of the Union My­anmar, attended the 14th Meet­ing of High-Level Task Force on ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 Vision (HLTF-ACV) which was held in Pattaya, Thailand, on 27-30 April 2024, accompanied by Depu­ty Director-General U Mang Hau Thang and an official from the Department of ASEAN Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

High-Level Representative drafting session of the 14th Meet­ing of the High-Level Task Force on ASEAN Community’s Post- 2025 Vision (HLTF-ACV) was held prior to the 14th Meeting of HLTF-ACV.

 

The Meeting was co-chaired by Mr Chatoulong Bouasisavath, Eminent Person (EP) of Lao PDR as the ASEAN Chair, and Mr Dato’ Zainuddin Yahya, Eminent Person (EP) of Malaysia and For­mer Malaysian Ambassador, as the permanent shepherd Mem­ber State. It was attended by Em­inent Persons, High-Level Repre­sentatives, officials from ASEAN Member States, Timor Leste as an Observer, and officials from the ASEAN Secretariat.

 

At the Meeting, the Deputy Minister expressed appreciation to the Co-Chairs and the host for organizing the important Meet­ing. She commended high-level representatives for their efforts in completing the first reading of the APSC Strategic Plan of the ASE­AN Community Vision 2045. She looked forward to its narrative format for further negotiations. On Strengthening ASEAN’s Ca­pacity and Institutional Effective­ness, the Deputy Minister high­lighted the need to strengthen not only the ASEAN Secretariat but also the respective national secretariat so as to bridge the gap between human resources and resource mobilization. She stressed the need for both top-down guidance and bottom-up initiatives on the development of the respective strategic plans and suggested considering the placement of the cross-cutting action lines in consultation with the Co-Chairs of High-Level Task Force on ASEAN Econom­ic Integration (HLTF-EI), Senior Officials Committee for the ASE­AN Socio-Cultural Community (SOCA) and ASEAN Connectivity Coordinating Committee (ACCC).

 

The Meeting noted the pro­gress made in the Implementa­tion of the HLTF-ACV’s Recom­mendations on Strengthening ASEAN’s Capacity and Institu­tional Effectiveness and tasked the ASEAN Secretariat to work on the list of proposed action lines in line with the recommendations which are yet to be implement­ed. The Meeting also tasked the ASEAN Secretariat to convert the matrix format of the APSC Strategic Plan to a narrative format, and it was agreed that the placement of the elements of institutional strengthening-re­lated strategic measures should be decided at a later stage. The Meeting adopted the Summary Decisions and Summary Reports of the 13th HLTF-ACV.

 

At the sideline of the Meet­ing, HLTF-ACV had an Interface meeting with the Chair of the High-Level Task Force on ASE­AN Economic Integration (HLTF-EI), Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Development of ASCC Post-2025 Strategic Plan and Chair of the ASEAN Connec­tivity Coordinating Committee (ACCC) and the respective pillars have updated their progress in developing their respective ASE­AN Vision 2045 strategic action plans and recommendations. The Meeting exchanged views on the development of the respec­tive strategic plans, placement of the elements of Institutional Strengthening-related Strate­gic Measures and cross-cutting issues in a friendly, cordial and candid manner.

 

HLTF-ACV was established in 2022 to develop the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and at­tendant document(s) in close con­sultation with the three ASEAN Community Pillars and ASEAN Connectivity Coordinating Com­mittee in accordance with the Ha Noi Declaration on the ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 Vision and the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community’s Post- 2025 Vision. — MNA