17 August 2015 – As this year’s Chairman of the ASEAN Nairobi Committee (ANC), Philippine Ambassador to Kenya Bayani V. Mangibin hosted the 48th ASEAN Day Celebration at the prestigious Zen Garden Restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya. Together with Indonesian Ambassador Sunu Soemarno, Malaysian High Commissioner Ismail Salam, and Thai Ambassador Prasittiporn Wetprasit, they welcome the guests at the said celebration.
In his welcome remarks, Ambassador Mangibin recounted the history of the establishment of ASEAN in Bangkok 48 years ago with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration by the Foreign Ministers of the original five member countries of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. ASEAN’s membership expanded to 10 after Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia joined the association. He also spoke of the acceleration of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of the year.
Ambassador Christopher Chika, Director of the Asia and Australasia Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Kenya was the guest of honor during the event.
In his speech, Ambassador Chika underscored the warm and friendly bilateral relations that exist between Kenya and the countries of ASEAN including the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. He recognized the unprecedented economic development in Asia and the ASEAN region comparing it with the fast rising economies in the African region and then expressed the desire to deepen bilateral relationship with all the ten economies of ASEAN through an even more dynamic engagement and partnership with the ASEAN countries.
Speaking about Philippine-Kenya bilateral relationship, Ambassador Chika announced the holding of the upcoming inaugural meeting of the Philippine-Kenya Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation in Manila from October 07 to 08 and recognized the competitiveness of the Philippines especially in certain skills: “This is a framework we use to expand our cooperation on various fields. So we are going to discuss on which areas we can cooperate. Specifically with the Philippines we see that they are very good in certain specialized skills which we require and we are lacking and which we think we can benefit from them through training and exchange of personnel.”
The celebration of ASEAN Day in Kenya is one of the projects of the ASEAN Nairobi Committee to promote awareness about ASEAN in Kenya. The event was covered by Ebru Television Africa, and broadcasted on prime time news together with individual interviews with the High Commissioner of Malaysia and the Ambassadors of Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines.
The Heads of Missions of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines in their respective interviews emphasized the need to promote stability, prosperity and unity in the ASEAN Political, Economic and Socio-Cultural Community.
The Philippine Ambassador further highlighted ASEAN as a region that has a lot to offer to the world, Kenya included when he said that: “We are now an integrated market with a huge consumer population of more than 600 million people, with a Gross Domestic Product of $2.3 trillion and $110.3 billion in terms of Foreign Direct Investment. The meaning of this is that we have something to offer, to share with Kenya. We look at Kenya as a strategic partner.” He also bared the two-level approach of the engagement with Kenya – the first level as a Single ASEAN Regional Market and the second level is on the bilateral level with each member country of the ASEAN.
Among the guests during the celebration were Colonel John Steed, (Ret.) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Mr. Ali Kutlu, Executive Director of Ebru Africa, other high officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Kenya, business leaders, officials of the Embassies of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines and other friends of ASEAN. END