A two-day seminar designed to promote the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity opened in Ho Chi Minh City on December 17.

The workshop is seen as an opportunity for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to collect suggestions from the bloc’s partners and facilitate the realisation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity.

“We would like to share all of the information about the Master Plan and listen to all recommendations from delegates to improve our mechanism. We hope that the Master Plan will create a firm foundation for a broader regional connectivity in East Asia in the future,” said Pham Quang Vinh, Assistant to the Vietnamese Foreign Minister and Chairman of ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting 2010.

The Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity was adopted at the 17 th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi on October 28, 2010. It identifies strategies and specific actions to speed up regional connectivity in three spheres: infrastructure, institutions and people.

In the field of infrastructure connectivity, the most important and necessary issue is to ensure smooth linkages in terms of transport, energy, information and communications, said Nguyen The Phuong, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment and Head of the High-Level Task Force on ASEAN Connectivity.

Meanwhile, a wide range of strategies will be undertaken to accelerate implementation of already signed agreements on the facilitation and liberalisation of trade in goods, services and investment, Phuong added.

Regarding people connectivity, the deputy minister said that measures to facilitate movement of people among ASEAN countries will be put forward, along with enhancing educational and cultural exchanges and tourism promotion.

The seminar is co-hosted by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the High-Level Task Force on ASEAN Connectivity and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia .

As many as 130 delegates from ASEAN member nations, ASEAN dialogue partners – China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the US, Russia, India, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union – regional and international organisations, business councils and companies’ from Southeast Asia and East Asia attended the event./.