21 January 2016 – Philippine Ambassador to France Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro delivered the keynote address at a conference on ASEAN entitled “What can the ASEAN Community contribute to Southeast Asia and the World?” on January 18.

The conference was jointly organized by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and the ASEAN Committee in Paris (ACP) at the IFRI conference center in Paris from January 18 to 19.

In her keynote address, Ambassador Lazaro recounted the milestones leading to the formal establishment of the ASEAN Community on December 31, 2015 and what this meant for the region and the rest of the world.

“ASEAN has become the new global center of economic gravity… If ASEAN were a single country, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world in terms of GDP. It would also be the third largest market with almost 650 million consumers, more than half of whom are under the age of 30,” the Ambassador highlighted.

With the formation of a single market and production base through the free flow of goods, services, investment, skilled labor and capital, ASEAN is poised to further reap the gains of its integration through reduced overall costs of doing business and greater transparency.

Increased liberalization of trade in services particularly bodes well for countries like the Philippines, which has a “significant potential to increase trade in services with the European Union,” according to Mr. Julian Conthe, Policy Coordinator from the European Commission Directorate-General for Trade.

In closing, Ambassador Lazaro mentioned the Philippines’ chairmanship of ASEAN in 2017, which also coincides with the golden anniversary of ASEAN: “They say that life begins at 40, but I believe the fun really begins at 50. Youth is far behind us, but at half a century, the coming milestone will mark a more confident, more mature and more dynamic ASEAN that will take its rightful place in the community of nations.” END