Strong ASEAN key to regional integration, says Deputy PM Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh stressed that building a strong ASEAN community is important to its members as it will step up their regional and global integration.   Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh speaks during the session ‘The Geopolitical Outlook’ in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos last Friday. Minh told Vietnam News Agency on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland last week that vibrant ASEAN economies would help sustain economic growth in Asia and promote regional connectivity.   The Deputy PM called for ASEAN to focus on boosting integration within the bloc and the competitiveness of the ASEAN community to enable members to benefit more from regional integration. Minh expected further regional integration would facilitate ASEAN nations to speed up domestic reforms and better capitalize on opportunities. Member nations need to prepare infrastructure and human resources to leverage the ASEAN Community and free trade agreements with major partners in and outside the region. He emphasized that deeper regional integration would help enhance mutual trust and address common challenges, including security threats, environmental pollution, climate change and development gap. Local media quoted Minh as saying at the WEF that disputes on the East Sea would be among the major concerns as they would affect peace and stability. Minh reiterated the country’s consistent stance of addressing the issues through peaceful negotiations and by international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982. The parties concerned should fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and work towards the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct (COC) to better ensure peace, security and stability in the East Sea and the region, he was quoted by Nguoi Lao Dong website as saying. Minh said to be the nucleus of the regional integration and connectivity, ASEAN countries need robust internal strengths, especially economic power, by developing a sustainable economic structure resilient to outside turbulence. Vietnam, like other ASEAN members, has implemented economic restructuring with a focus on public spending, the banking sector and enterprises. Extending ASEAN’s inter-regional economic ties reinforces the bloc and opens its members to the advantages of operating as a single market with 600 million consumers.  ASEAN should seize the opportunities of intra-ASEAN integration, integration with existing FTAs Partners in East Asia and the establishment of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by 2015. According to Vietnam News Agency, during the sessions at the WEF, Minh highlighted the recovery of Vietnam’s economy in recent years and the Vietnamese Government’s commitment to improving the business climate. Minh also shared the country’s experience in developing a sustainable agriculture and ensuring national food security at the session on Global Agenda for Food Security. SGT