President Jokowi is Confident that ASEAN’s Young Generation Can Realize the Epicentrum of Growth
Labuan Bajo – ASEAN’s position as the Epicentrum of Growth must continue to be strengthened, because with unity, ASEAN countries will be able to become central players in bringing world peace and growth.
This was conveyed by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo when opening the ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai, NTT, Wednesday (10/05/2023).
On this occasion, President Jokowi invited ASEAN members to work closely together to formulate a common agenda to ensure that the Southeast Asian region continues to be the center of regional and world economic growth.
“The collaboration between the government and parliament must be strengthened to maintain and strengthen political stability and democracy, in order to ensure that ASEAN becomes the center of regional and world economic growth,” said President Jokowi.
Regarding efforts to achieve the ASEAN 2045 vision, President Jokowi emphasized that ASEAN country leaders should be more adaptive and visionary.
“The emphasis is on the ASEAN Vision 2045 being more adaptive and visionary or forward looking and not doing the same thing or doing business as usual, so you have to think out of the box and be transformative,” explained the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia.
The ASEAN leaders also supported the existence of the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on the Development of the ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 Vision as part of the process of developing the ASEAN Post-2025 vision. With this ratification, it is hoped that the ASEAN Post-2025 drafting process will be strengthened and ensure that the ASEAN Post-2025 vision is as planned.
At the same moment, the President of the Republic of Indonesia together with the ASEAN Heads of State (HoS) also held a meeting of the ASEAN Youth session.
President Jokowi added that the younger generation of ASEAN are future leaders who have positive energy and creative ideas to advance the region.
He hopes that the ASEAN young generation will play a big role in the sustainability of Southeast Asia as a stable and peaceful region, as well as becoming the Epicentrum of Growth.
“ASEAN has strong capital to achieve it. An economy that is growing far above the world average, regional stability is maintained. And of course because 34 percent of ASEAN’s population are youth,” said President Jokowi.
