SINGAPORE - Southeast Asia is facing its biggest crisis since the Cold War as it struggles to tackle the economic turmoil sweeping the region, Singapore Information Minister George Yeo said on Monday. This crisis is the biggest crisis that has hit ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) since the end of the Cold War. ASEAN will either become weaker or stronger as a result of it, Yeo said.

Yeo was speaking at the opening of a meeting of ASEAN's committee on culture and information. ASEAN must change as a result of the regional economic crisis, Yeo said. We cannot assume that old methods can solve new problems. We need to think through our problems afresh, Yeo said. To keep up with fast economic growth, better education and rapid urbanization, our economic, social and political institutions have to be reformed and restructured to meet the needs of financial transparency, wider political participation and the international market, Yeo added.

This would require action by individual countries and ASEAN as a group, he said. ASEAN required not just political cooperation among its members but should also press ahead with economic integration, and pursue a strategy of strong economic links with all parts of the world, Yeo said. ASEAN groups Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos and Indonesia, nearly all of which have been hit by the economic crisis.

(Reuter)