Thailand Ready to Hold ASEAN summit

 Thailand's Prime Minister on Tuesday reiterated that the country, as Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is ready to host the 14th ASEAN Summit from Feb. 27 to March 1.

Thailand as the ASEAN chairman will help build ASEAN to be the people-based community, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told a press conference at the Government House.

From Dec. 15 last year, the ASEAN community has become a legal entity for the first time after the ASEAN Charter was ratified by ASEAN foreign ministers paving the way for creating a single market within seven years.

The Charter allows the regional grouping to sue and be sued and establishes enforceable financial, trade and environmental rules.

The Thai PM, at his first press conference since taking office as government head of Thailand, also assured that Thailand will take the chance of hosting the Summit to tell the international community that Thailand will remain as the "land of freedom, land of smiles and land of opportunities."

Among important issues to be discussed during the Summit include human rights, food and energy security, disaster management, world financial and economic crisis, said Abhisit.

The 14th ASEAN summit has been postponed from the originally planned December 2008 to the new date in late February this year, due to the country's political deadlock.

The venue for the summit also went through three times of changes -- initially planned in the capital Bangkok, later moved to Thailand's northern province Chiang Mai, than back to Bangkok.

The current government led by Abhisit, who was appointed as Thai premier in mid-December last year, finally settled down at the central resort towns of Hua Hin and Cha-Am in Thailand's central province of Prachuab Khirikhan from Feb. 27 to March 1.

The ten ASEAN member countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
 
Source - China View