The ASEAN(the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)-China-GCC(the Gulf Cooperation Council) Summit is an important step towards the integration of economies of the three sides, Malaysian Minister of Transport Anthony Loke Siew Fook said in an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN)on Wednesday.
The summit, held in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, builds bridges among the regions, and can generate more economic opportunities, Loke said.
"I think the fact that we were able to convene such a tripartite summit - ASEAN, GCC and China, is an achievement by itself. So I think this is a very good start that we will not only be able to talk to each other, but, I think, to build bridges especially in the current times where multilateralism is being challenged. I think this summit has achieved its purpose by building more discourse and discussion among different countries," said the minister.
"First of all, within ASEAN, we must encourage more inter trade within the region. And we must have more integrated economy within the ASEAN Region. ASEAN has a population of almost 700 million. So as a bloc, I think we have to build our resilience together. And ASEAN should also have more collaboration with other blocks such as GCC. And of course China is our close neighbor. And having this summit in Kuala Lumpur this year, ASEAN, GCC and China, it is an important milestone and important steps towards more integration of our economies and more trade flows between our region and between ASEAN, China and also GCC," Loke further said.
Malaysia is serving as the ASEAN chair for 2025. Loke highlighted Malaysia's unique position of being a Muslim-majority country and a good neighbor with China, which allows it to bring together China and GCC countries to explore further cooperation.
"We hope that being the chair of ASEAN this year, we can take a more proactive measures to reach out to more partners and to have more dialogues and more integration," he said.
Loke also spoke about cooperation under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), of which both ASEAN and GCC countries are important partners, highlighting the significance of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), one of Malaysia's flagship projects with China under the BRI framework, in boosting transregional connectivity.
"Transportation link is important for any economies. For economic development to happen we need connectivity, and ECRL will bring connectivity to our least developed region in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. And we also hope that by having a better transportation link, we can connect with other countries as well. For the ASEAN region, what we are looking at right now [is] to have better connectivity with Thailand. Once we have better rail connectivity with Thailand and then we can link up all the way to Laos and to China. And as we know, once we reach China, you can reach all the way to Europe. So this is a very important project And we are looking forward that this will be a new catalyst for better connected ASEAN in the future," said the minister.
Malaysian minister sees ASEAN-China-GCC Summit important step to integrate economies of three sides
Malaysian minister sees ASEAN-China-GCC Summit important step to integrate economies of three sides
