At the 2013 Administration Summit jointly
organised by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia
(ERIA) and Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce, Prof. Hidetoshi, ERIA
Secretary-General, held that strengthening strategic connectivity and
prioritising hard and soft infrastructure systems will support the
economic restructuring process in the region and narrow the development
gap in ASEAN.
Meanwhile, chief trade representative
of Thailand Olarn Chaipravat reaffirmed that an infrastructure project
valued at 700 million USD that the country launched recently is aimed at
enhancing ASE AN intra-bloc linkage.
He
underscored that Thailand will focus the country’s future connectivity
programmes on the promotion of links between Yunnan ( China ) with
Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Established in 2007 in Indonesia, ERIA works closely with both the
ASEAN Secretariat and 16 regional research institutes to undertake and
disseminate policy research and provide analytical policy
recommendations to leaders and ministers at their regional meetings.-VNA