Bundit Limschoon, Secretary-General of ACD.
Doha: The successful hosting of the 16th ministerial meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) and its fruitful outcome reflects the leadership of Qatar in multilateral diplomacy, said Bundit Limschoon, Secretary-General of ACD.
“This meeting was very successful and fruitful. It is not the first time for Qatar to host this meeting. In 2006, Qatar hosted the fifth ACD foreign ministerial meeting. Qatar will host the third Summit of ACD in 2020. This reflects the leadership of Qatar in Multilateral Diplomacy,” Bundit Limschoon told The Peninsula, speaking on the sidelines of the meeting.
Qatar hosted the high-profile 16th ministerial meeting of ACD early this month, which witnessed strong participation from Asian countries.
One of the important outcomes of the meeting was adoption of the Doha Dialogue, which welcomed the proposal submitted by Qatar to host the Third Summit of ACD in 2020, and its initiatives to teach the Arabic language to non-Arabic speakers in the ACD Member States.
“The Doha Declaration called for strengthening regional cooperation, including all programs and initiatives to facilitate and expand regional trade, transit, increase investment and promote infrastructure development,” he said.
He said that ACD has played important role in increasing cooperation between Asian countries.
“ACD started in 2002 with 18 countries and now we cover 35 countries. It means that now we cover entire Asia,” he said. “In the form of ACD, we have, in Asia, one platform that cover all countries. It is very interesting because we can connect far-east and middle east, including south and central Asia. With ACD, we try to make sure that we can turn differences into diversity and complement each other,” Limschoon said.
He said that member countries have signed an agreement regarding universities. “We have signed an agreement for ACD university network. It means that all universities in Asia have one platform now. They can exchange all kind of activity and programme,” he said.
Another important development of the meeting was to include Palestine as the newest member of ACD. “The decision to include Palestine was unanimous because in ACD we work on consensus. There are huge opportunities in Asia and Palestine will benefit a lot by joining ACD,” he said.
“We need to send a strong message from the forum to the global community that wee will do our best to keep Asia free society, free economy and free from regionalism. We are free, we are open to all,” he said.
He stressed that promoting Small and Medium Enterprises is one of the focus areas for ACD.
“Our focus is on SMEs. In the past two decades, we in Asia enjoyed to send the cheap products by using our competitive labour and pricing , but not anymore. So we need a new growth model and I believe that in the next information revolution SMEs are going to be the new engine of economic growth,” he said.
The Doha Declaration said that the Asian region has achieved stability over the last few years, and Asia is on the way to becoming a major driving force for global economic growth and a key partner in achieving global partnership in development for adopting the policies of good-neighbourliness, friendship, dialogue, cooperation and common development.
The ACD countries emphasized the important role of small and medium enterprises as the engine for generating growth and prosperity throughout Asia in a sustainable way, and welcomed Qatar’s initiative to host the ACD Business Forum to create a private sector business platform to promote small and medium enterprises across Asia.
The Declaration noted the importance of balance and its contribution to economic sustainability and overall development in promoting dialogue, mutual respect, understanding and harmony.
It stressed the importance of regional cooperation as a key mechanism for accelerating the achievement of the three pillars of sustainable development, which include social and economic development and environmental protection, as well as the stability of the Asian region with its vast and varied natural and human resources, rich and historical heritage and economic and social potential.
