Regional Economic Integration and Cultural ChangeRodolfo C. Severino

ASIEN – Nr. 110 (2009) pp. 68–72

Address delivered by Rodolfo C. Severino – Head, ASEAN Studies Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore and former Secretary General of ASEAN – at the International Cultural Forum organised by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam, Ha Noi, 12 November 2008

The subject of our forum today and tomorrow is rapid social change in Southeast Asia. What I will do this evening is try to relate change – social change, culture change, a change in mind-sets – to the efforts at regional economic integration in Southeast Asia. Then, I will make a couple of suggestions for how the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations can cooperate to support these efforts and the changes that they require, even as, at the highest level, European and East Asian heads of government, having met in Beijing last month, seek to deal together with the global financial turmoil…