THE Association of Southeast Asian Nations faces “major challenges” in its efforts to bridge the development gap among its members, the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Mr Syed Hamid Albar, said last week.

“Bridging the gap between the older and more developed ASEAN member states with the newer and less developed members continues to be a major challenge for ASEAN as a whole,” Mr Syed Hamid told a conference in London on September 10.

He said that due to a lack of financial resources, plans by the 10-member grouping to promote economic development in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – all of which joined the regional grouping in the 1990s – have not yet been realised.

Mr Syed Hamid said the wide development gap between the four countries on one hand and the six older members – Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei – on the other hand has hampering efforts by ASEAN to transform itself into a European Union-style community.

Meanwhile, the incoming ASEAN secretary general, Mr Surin Pitsuwan, has suggested that the regional organisation should use its own funds to help boost economic development among less developed members.

Mr Surin told a conference in Bangkok on August 29 that ASEAN should use funds from its foreign reserve, which he said stands at US$450 billion, for poverty reduction by investing in infrastructure development in the less developed countries “instead of relying on outside help from their partners,” the Bangkok Post quoted him as saying.

Mr Surin, a former Thai foreign minister who will assume the post of ASEAN secretary general starting in January, conceded that some members might be reluctant to allow ASEAN funds to be used for the economic development of the four countries in question.

“But medium and long-term investment in human resources is crucial and a prerequisite to prepare ASEAN citizens to be able to fully reap the benefits of development,” Mr Surin said.