ASEAN Integration 2015: Fact impact on the youth

By: Erika Carmela Inovero

"Young people like you have to be the ones who lead us forward." - U.S. President Barack Obama

The youth nowadays symbolize the face of one's culture and society. In the Philippines, Filipino youth play a great role in achieving successful development for the ASEAN community. Hence, they serve as vital instruments in designing the present and future paths of the Philippines, Asia and the world.

Situation of the ASEAN region

According to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, “one of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face all challenges of change." The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) Integration or also known as ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is one of the most important events that the Filipinos must look forward by the end of 2015. Yes, it will be implemented on the timeline set at the end of December 2015 for the blueprint of AEC was adopted and signed by all ASEAN leaders during their annual Summit Meeting last November 2007 in Singapore. The ten ASEAN member countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma) and Philippines are moving towards accomplishing the ASEAN Integration. Therefore, it is important for policymakers in the region to sustain the momentum - or perhaps even accelerate the pace - towards establishing the AEC.

"We talk as if the ASEAN Economic Community is a day when the world will change completely on December 31, 2015. It is simply a reference date for ASEAN countries to achieve 100% economic integration," said economist and USAID Head of Trade-related Assistance and Development Dr. Cielito Habito. The heart of AEC for which a mindset change of stakeholders need to face the ASEAN Integration deadline. The mentioned stakeholders include politicians who have to implement agreements committed and signed by the government, businessmen who ask for protection or preferential treatment instead of pro-actively addressing long-term problems, and the general public who must wage a continuous battle against corruption and inefficiency. During the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) joint ASEAN Integration forum, Chief of ILO Sukti Dasgupta assured that "AEC will have major benefits for the Philippines. However, to maximize these benefits, the government must take decisive actions now, especially in terms of labor and unemployment as too many workers are still in poor quality jobs."

Major problems of the Philippines

Before entering into the competitive field of AEC, the Philippines must take note of its own situation first. In order to become a strongly united economic force, Filipinos should solve one's own problems and seek for available solutions. Solutions must also be addressed to the 100,823,935 Filipinos in the country. According to the joint ILO-ADB recent study entitled, 'ASEAN Community 2015: Managing integration for better jobs and shared prosperity', "unemployment still hovers at 100-million figure". Currently, ASEAN's total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at U.S. $2.4 trillion with a labor force of approximately 300 million people, representing only about 3.3% of the world's economy. Furthermore, the average unemployment rate among ASEAN countries runs at 4.2%. But, Philippines has the highest unemployment rate of 7%, including its youth unemployment rate of 16.6%, which ranks second to Indonesia (21.6%) as the highest from the 13% average youth unemployment rate of ASEAN countries. Although many young Filipinos graduate each year, only a few of them are being employed.

Another major problem is that 92 million (30.6%) ASEAN people live in poverty. Poverty is both more widespread and more persistent in the Philippines than in neighboring ASEAN countries. According to the 2009 statistics, 26.5% of Filipinos lived with less than $1 (P45) a day, a poverty rate which was roughly the same level as Haiti's. Thus, it is obvious that the country is in crisis and yet elite domination of the economy and politics in the country causes corruption. Corruption in the Philippines is very prevalent and it is said to be the mother of all major causes of poverty in the Philippines. In 2012, the Transparency International ranked Philippines number 105 out of 176 as one of the countries with high level corruption. Aside from corruption, investments are down in the Philippines because of monopolies, substandard infrastructures, and high electricity or power costs. As a result, the Philippines' investment-to-GDP ratio stands at 19.7% compared to Indonesia's 33%, Thailand's 27%, and Malaysia's 24%. It is clear that the main stumbling point for making the Philippine economy viable in the ASEAN region is the Philippine elite's domination and monopoly of trade, industries and resources that caused huge income disparity among the population.

Hunger or malnourishment and lack of quality education due to poverty are also counted as some of the problems which greatly affect young Filipinos. As a matter of fact, Philippines has the highest out of school youth proportion at 11.4% or 1.5 million primary school aged Filipinos. Moreover, 32% among Filipino children under age 5 are malnourished. These are already serious problems for the country but the Philippines invests less in public health and especially in quality education. Accordingly based in the year 2010, it spent the least on education with 2.65% of GDP compared to other ASEAN countries such as Indonesia that spent 2.77%, Thailand with 5.79%, Malaysia with 5.94%, among others. If the Philippines does not want to increase the risky worsening problems, the country needs to make the most of the ASEAN integration.

ASEAN Integration as a solution

"Embrace ASEAN. We cannot do away with it. It is important to be able to contribute to the development of the Philippines within the region," encouraged Terisita Daza, Executive Officer of the Department of Foreign Affair's Office of ASEAN Affairs. By the end of 2015, ASEAN Integration or ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) aims to create a single regional common market and production base economy that will become a reality for the 600 million men and women of the 10 ASEAN member states. In addition, the leaders of ASEAN adopted the AEC blueprint in 2007 as a guide in establishing it to all member countries, including the Philippines which envisions a stable, prosperous and competitive economic nation with socioeconomic disparities, equitable economic development and reduced poverty. Focus of the integration also includes the seven components that ensures 'free trade' and promotion of a single market and production base which consist of the following: development of priority integration sectors, free flow of goods, services, investment, capital, skilled labor, and competitiveness of food, agriculture and forestry sectors. While there are 11 priority integration sectors which consists agro-based products, fisheries, wood-based products, rubber-based products, automotive, electronics, air travel, tourism, health care, e-ASEAN (ICT), and textiles or apparels. Consequently, this will lead to a huge impact on the structure of the economic and employment growth as well as jobs, skills, wages and labor mobility.

“If decisive policy action is taken, ASEAN integration has the potential to ensure sustained economic growth centred on decent and productive work thus, help the Philippines achieve its goal of inclusive growth that creates jobs and reduces poverty,” ILO Philippines Country Office Director Lawrence Jeff Johnson said. "The prospect of large gains in such jobs calls for coordinated labor market policies to improve working conditions and reduce vulnerability," Johnson added.

Vision with a mission for the nation

Youth involvement everywhere is moving forward. Thus, great changes in the destiny of mankind affect the minds of the youth nowadays. Young people in Southeast Asia are already working to make tomorrow a brighter day. As a result, various organizations, such as the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), effort to harness extraordinary potentials of the youth in the region to address critical challenges and expand opportunities. Launched in 2013, YSEALI is U.S. President Barack Obama’s signature program to strengthen leadership development and networking in Southeast Asia. When U.S. President Obama was young, he started out as a community organizer ensuring people in his community to receive job training and help in getting a university degree. He knows from personal experience that young people can be powerful agents for good in their communities. Hence, YSEALI carries on President Obama’s legacy by fostering community leadership among youth in ASEAN member countries. Furthermore, YSEALI focuses on critical topics identified by youth in the region: civic engagement, environment and natural resources management, and entrepreneurship and economic development. Through a variety of programs and engagements, including U.S. educational and cultural exchanges, regional exchanges and seed funding, it seeks to build the leadership capabilities of youth in the region, strengthen ties between the United States and Southeast Asia, and nurture an ASEAN community.

In addition, the YSEALI community consists of bright young leaders aged 18–35 from the ASEAN member countries. These young leaders have innovative ideas for tackling what they have identified as their generation’s greatest challenges in the ASEAN region. Every day, they are coming up with creative solutions — like using beneficial microbes to clean rivers or creating job opportunities by selling products made from water lilies.

According to the Executive Officer of DFA Terisita Daza, “Young people who comprise 60% of the ASEAN population will play a role in the development of the region, especially in promoting awareness.” Youth are innovative, creative, and eager to contribute their ideas and energy to improve not only their own lives, but the lives of others in their communities. In the YSEALI community, one of the young active and inspiring Filipino member is Ms. Kristine Lim Ang. At the age of 32, she has already achieved and went through many things in life. As an aspiring young Filipino, she is currently working as the consultant or project staff of Global Network Women Peace builders (GNWP) while studying her Master’s degree at the University of the Philippines Open University. She recently signed up through the YSEALI website because she believes that “it can strengthen leadership skills through exploring opportunities offered, while meeting, learning, practicing, and sharing a lot of stuff with other young regional change makers.” Accordingly in her perspective, “YSEALI is an enabling environment where ASEAN youth can develop and hone their leadership skills, strengthen commitment to their respective advocacies and meet like-minded and passionate neighboring counterparts.” Indeed, she confirmed these perspectives during her recent participation in the YSEALI Generation: The Power of Collaboration Conference. Other participations were during the 14th International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and Asia Pacific Regional Youth Conference.

Ms. Kristine also has a positive perspective towards the ASEAN integration “because it will create free flow of goods and services within the ASEAN region, thereby opening up untapped economic opportunities for all the nations involved. It needs to be implemented in the Philippines for a country to be at par with its neighboring countries in the region, isolation is definitely not the way to go in this current era of rapid globalization.” She also believed that “it is more an opportunity because the ASEAN integration will create more regional academic and job opportunities that were not available in the past. It is also the type of economic community that young Filipinos, considered as leaders of the next generation, will face in the future and it will definitely have a huge impact on my part because all of my future career plans will either be highly dependent or affected by it.”

* * *

“Ultimately, the success of ASEAN regional integration will depend on how it affects the labor market, and therefore on how it improves the quality life of 600 million women and men in the region,” ILO Regional Economic and Social Analysis Chief Dasgupta concluded. Therefore, we want a type of integration implemented not on profit and competition for the elite people but for the common good of the ASEAN communities, particularly the Filipino citizens and the youth. Indeed, an integrated economy and environment that the youth can also benefit and serve as vital instruments to support the present and future needs of the people, the nation, and the world.

Bibliography:

* http://links.org.au/node/4046

* http://www.mob.com.ph/how- to-make-the-asean-integration-work-for-you/

*http://ASEAN.aim.edu/research/presentations/asean-integration-2015-is-the-philippines-ready-for-afta/

*http://www.grappler.com/business/jobs/71427-asean-integration-jobs-philippines

*http://www.I'll.org/manila/info/public/PR/wcms 311801/lang--in/index.htm

*http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/philippines-population/

*http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/

*http://youngsoutheastasianleadershipinitiative.state.gov

#governance #governance