00:00ASEAN Business Advisory Council Chairman Nazir Razak has urged ASEAN to accelerate efforts to strengthen economic unity amid rising regional and global uncertainty.
00:11Speaking ahead of the 2025 ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, Nazir warned that the region's openness to trade and investment, long seen as a strength, also made it vulnerable.
00:22ASEAN is very exposed. We are open economies both in terms of trade and capital flows. We're very dependent on FDI.
00:37You know, our energy requirement will double in 2040. By 2040, we'll double the energy needs. Where's the money going to come from?
00:45Nazir also highlighted the impact of U.S. tariffs which have slowed investment, as well as ongoing security concerns in the South China Sea and between ASEAN members themselves.
00:56If America kind of really becomes isolationist, you know, you have to worry about who is going to kind of enforce the old rules of geopolitics, right?
01:12Even the sanctity of boundaries, right? The policeman is gone. We need to look at how ASEAN together navigate the New World Order, how ASEAN will remain neutral, but also multi-aligned in that way.
01:35However, there are also signs of progress. He pointed to ASEAN's coordinated response to U.S. tariffs as one example.
01:42They all agreed no retaliatory tariffs very quickly. They agreed on sharing information in terms of negotiations with the U.S.
01:50And then later on, they agreed on setting up the Geoeconomic Task Force.
01:56Geoeconomic coordination and ASEAN's role in a shifting global order will be key themes at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit,
02:03which runs from October 25th to October 26th at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
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