Public Administration News
Share
 |
Asia’s Rise Means Europe Now Needs to Look East |
| Source: |
thestar.com.my |
| Source Date: |
Sunday, July 17, 2011 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
|
| Created: |
Aug 02, 2011 |
|
HE Prime Minister’s current tour of Europe is a timely and strategic exercise.
Although bilateral ties between Malaysia and several European countries have been established for generations, there is perhaps no better time than now to refurbish them.
This comes more than a decade after the 1990s Asian financial crisis and its immediate aftermath, and some three years after the US-induced global crisis.
Yet South-East Asian economies have largely remained intact, vibrant and resilient.
At the same time, ascendant China and India continue on their irrepressible rise.
For the developed countries and economies of Europe, the centre of promise is East Asia – such are the realities of regional economic integration.
This is a region where economies are consistently both the most robust and the most promising in the world.
And among the most stable of these is Malaysia, which ranks among the world’s top 10 most competitive countries.
It is high time that Europe, with the European Union in particular, upgraded its relations with South-East Asia in general and with Malaysia in particular.
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said in London on Friday that Europeans now ought to look East.
That would be at least as much in their own interests as it would be in ours.
In centuries past, Europeans had ventured this way in search of trade.
Spice and silk, we were told, had been at the top of their agenda.
Then came colonial subjugation, pillage and plunder, whether by coincidence or subterfuge.
Later came tourism, as the more adventurous Europeans trekked this way for a taste of the exotic.
Trade also re-emerged, or rather remained, albeit in some revised forms. But there was a sense that more could be done to mutual advantage.
The Asia of today may surprise many Europeans with how far we have come.
Asians have tended to know more about Europe than Europeans know about us, owing to a largely one-way transmission of popular culture and educational experiences.
But a more reciprocal relationship based on mutual exchanges is overdue.
We have much more to offer one another by way of trade, investments, technology, expertise, diplomacy, education and culture.
Whether East Asia eventually resembles a far more integrated Europe in the EU, we should all continue to work harder in our larger shared interests.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rate: |
0 ratings
|
Views: |
155 |
| Comments: |
0 |
Favorited: |
0 |
Bookmarked: |
0 |
Tagged: |
0 |
|
|
|
|