Hun Manet urges ASEAN to defend economic integration

Hun Manet urges ASEAN to defend economic integration

At the ASEAN Future Forum in Hanoi, Prime Minister Hun Manet calls on the bloc’s member states to deepen economic integration, resist fragmentation and keep people at the centre of development as rising global instability threatens decades of progress.

Prime Minister Hun Manet has urged ASEAN member states to safeguard the bloc’s economic integration, strengthen regional cooperation and ensure that future growth benefits ordinary citizens.

He also warned that rising global instability is threatening development gains achieved over decades.

Speaking at the 3rd ASEAN Future Forum in Hanoi yesterday, Mr Hun Manet said the world is facing multiple overlapping crises that have pushed sustainable development concerns into the background and created significant challenges for smaller states that depend on peace, openness and international trade.

“The world is currently so overwhelmed by multiple and successive crises that the issue of sustainable development has become less visible on the international stage,” he said.

He noted that many small countries had relied on a rules-based international order, open markets and global trade to steadily advance their development, but are now experiencing setbacks amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

Focusing on ASEAN’s economic future, Mr Hun Manet stressed that member states must preserve the achievements made through regional economic integration and resist moves toward economic fragmentation.

“In discussing the future of ASEAN’s economy, we cannot forget the importance of safeguarding the achievements that ASEAN has made together in building a more integrated ASEAN Economic Community,” he said.

The Prime Minister rejected the notion that any single country could become fully self-sufficient across its entire supply chain, describing such expectations as unrealistic.

“The idea that a single member state can be fully self-sufficient in its entire supply chain is wishful thinking,” he said.

He called on ASEAN to continue championing a free, open, inclusive and rules-based multilateral trading system centred on the World Trade Organization while maximising the benefits of existing free trade agreements through upgrades and more effective implementation.

Mr Hun Manet also urged the region to deepen economic integration and invest in sectors that will shape future growth, including artificial intelligence, digital transformation, green transition initiatives, resilient supply chains, the blue economy, the creative economy, science, technology and innovation.

Beyond economic development, he highlighted the importance of placing people at the centre of ASEAN’s policymaking. “In every policy we make, as we pursue growth, we must always remember that prosperity is meaningful only when it serves the people,” he said.

He argued that ASEAN’s success should not be judged solely by economic indicators such as gross domestic product, trade volumes or investment flows, but also by improvements in citizens’ quality of life.

According to Mr Hun Manet, ASEAN has helped lift millions of people out of poverty over the past decades while expanding access to education and healthcare, improving connectivity, creating jobs and fostering a growing middle class throughout the region.

However, he said rising public expectations and increasingly complex challenges mean the bloc must continue delivering tangible benefits to its citizens more effectively.

The Prime Minister also highlighted the need to strengthen ASEAN community-building efforts and promote greater mutual understanding among the peoples of member states.

He warned that insufficient understanding between citizens can weaken friendship, peaceful coexistence and good neighbourly relations, while creating space for divisive narratives and extreme nationalism.

Concluding his remarks, Mr Hun Manet said ASEAN’s experience demonstrates that peace and prosperity are deeply interconnected, with economic growth ultimately needing to improve people’s lives.

Speaking in the same forum, ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn warned that ASEAN is operating in an increasingly uncertain world marked by geopolitical rivalry, armed conflicts, economic fragmentation, technological disruption and declining trust in international institutions. He called for stronger regional cooperation and collective action.

He highlighted vulnerabilities in five key areas — fuel, food, fertiliser, finance and foreign workers — through which external shocks can affect ASEAN economies and societies.

“ASEAN’s challenge is not the absence of frameworks; rather, it is ensuring that the frameworks we have are fully operational, effective and responsive to the evolving realities,” he said.

“Take energy security as an example. ASEAN already has in place the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Petroleum Security and the ASEAN Power Grid, both designed precisely to strengthen energy resilience against global shocks.”

According to Kim Hourn, what the regional bloc needs at the moment is the ratification and operationalisation of its existing frameworks to strengthen its economic resilience.

The ASEAN Future Forum (AFF) 2026 officially opened in Hanoi yesterday under the theme “Shaping Our Future Together: Peace, Prosperity and People-Centred”.

Now in its third year, the forum has become an important platform for regional dialogue and cooperation, reaffirming Vietnam’s proactive and responsible role in advancing ASEAN’s development agenda and regional connectivity.

In his welcoming remarks, Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung said Vietnam established the forum with the aim of creating an open, substantive and forward-looking space for dialogue among ASEAN member states and international partners.

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