President Aquino joins ASEAN Leaders in signing Kuala Lumpur Declaration

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said “substantial progress” have been made in the negotiations, but more time was needed to reach mutually beneficial deal.

“It is important to have effective counter narratives to fight against violent extremism in this part of the world and in this aspect, Malaysia is well positioned to do so with its experience on anti-terrorism”, he said.

The idea of building the community was proposed in 2003 on the three pillars of the Asean Political and Security Community, the Asean Economic Community and the Asean Socio-Cultural Community.

The combined GDP of the ASEAN economies, he said, will grow to $4.7 trillion by 2020, and the bloc will become the world’s fourth-largest economy as early as 2030.

“In practice, we have virtually eliminated tariff barriers between us”, Mr Najib said.

“Now we have to assure freer movements and removal of barriers that hinder growth and investment”, Razak added.

There are also other hurdles, such as corruption, uneven infrastructure and unequal costs of transportation and shipping.

Eight groups of professionals will be able to work more easily throughout the region: engineers, architects, nurses, doctors, dentists, accountants, surveyors and tourism professionals.

So far, ASEAN’s 10 member countries have managed to achieve almost 90% of the 611 measures adopted since 2007, including removing duties and streamlining business procedures.

The EU-style ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) envisages a single market with unrestricted movement of capital, goods and labour in the region.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday.

“This will be done through joint efforts and sacrifices to secure for our people and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity”.

“It will not work to keep him in power”, Obama added. No country should use or support terrorism.

The American leader noted that the Islamic State has been accused of bringing down a Russian passenger jet last month that killed 224 people, and attacked a luxury hotel in Mali that killed 19 people, including six Russians.

He said IS “can’t beat us on the battlefield so they try to terrorise us into being afraid”. This is because they are likely to remain in Singapore due to the quality of the labour force and better intellectual property protection.

The Prime Minister pointed out that Asean leaders needed to echo the conclusion of the Bangkok Declaration of 1967 signalling the birth of Asean, by binding together in friendship and cooperation.

It was also signed by the presidents Joko Widodo, from Indonesia; Benigno Aquino (Philippines), U Thein Sein (Myanmar) and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei.

Ten Southeast Asian heads of state and nine world leaders, including President Barack Obama, are meeting in Malaysia to discuss trade and economic issues.

China, which claims nearly the entire energy-rich South China Sea, has been transforming reefs into artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago and building airfields and other facilities on some of them.