Excellency,
Distinct Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all I'd like to thank all of you for honoring us with your presence and cheer with us on the celebration for the ASEAN's 39th Anniversary.
The Southeast Asia Nations Association or ASEAN is composed by 10 countries. It was established on August 8th of 1967 in Bangkok by five original member countries, being, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since then, the ASEA has expanded gradually, with Brunei Darussalam associating in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999.
Today, with the celebration of its 39th Anniversary, the ASEAN has a population of 500 million, an associated GNP of $737 billion and a total commerce of $720 billion. Looking forward with its solidarity and with a transparent foreign policy, the ASEAN is certainly in the right path for a bigger growth and development.
There are 6 embassies from the ASEAN countries in Brasilia and tonight the ambassadors of these countries will be the hosts of this event. To acknowledge, Ambassador of Myanmar, Ambassador of the Philippines, Ambassador of Malaysia, Ambassador of Vietnam, in charge of business from Indonesia and myself, Ambassador of Thailand.
It's our greatest honor and pleasure to be hosts of tonight's celebration that has as a goal a bigger promotion on the ASEAN-Brazil relations as a South-South cooperation spirit. In fact, our two regions, the Latin America and the Southeast Asia, have a lot to share and learn among themselves, including the commerce, economy and the social development such as arts and cultures, which are the main themes of our celebration tonight.
With the speed of globalization in the present, our regions are inevitably becoming more and more independent. Our market statistics are the evidence that show a development of approximately 14.86% per year. The latest statistics show data of $3.9 billion per year, even though not being an expressive number, it's very encouraging. With that in mind, we have therefore, to strengthen the ASEAN-Brazil relations. To make it happen, we have to help to develop a relation dialog for ASEAN-Brazil. We have as a goal, to create also an ASEAN-Brazil partnership, based on the common vision and shared interests, covering all the cooperation areas. This partnership, once developed, should result in concrete benefits for ASEAN and Brazil in a comprehensive path, including areas like the commerce and investments and also economical and social developments. With this strong determination, we are certainly able to pass the long distance between us and focus on bigger and mutual benefits that will result in our cooperation.
After this, with the ASEAN population of 500 million people and the Brazilian population of more than 180 million, it will only mean anything if both parts cooperate next to each other to create a more dynamical intercontinental market.
Like I mentioned, the main theme of our celebration tonight is the culture. Therefore, I'd like to invite all of you to experiment tonight, the softness of many traditional dishes from our ASEAN countries, and also enjoy the beauty of the selected handicrafts that represent not only the cultures, but also the traditional ways of life of the people on the Southeast part of Asia.
Thank you very much.
|
