It also called for promoting trade and investment relations between the GCC and ASEAN, by enhancing public-private sector engagement and business-to-business relations between both regions, using available and new physical and online platforms, trade missions, exhibitions, seminars, conferences, and dialogues between their business representatives. They also called for exploring cooperation on key economic partnership priorities namely, strengthening regional market integration; sustainability and decarbonization; digital transformation and inclusivity, including Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), public-private sector engagement, and people-to-people ties.
Participants called for encouraging technical assistance and capacity building for entrepreneurs and start-ups in both sides, with particular focus on women, youth, and persons with disabilities to enable them to compete regionally and globally. They also called for promoting trade multilateral system, as embodied by the World Trade Organization (WTO), amidst disruptions in global trade markets and supply chains. They also welcomed Saudi Arabias bid to host Expo 2030 in Riyadh, highlighting the importance of organizing regional and international exhibitions to reenergize economic and cultural exchanges between the Gulf and Southeast Asia regions.
They stressed the importance of identifying cooperation in the development of sustainable and circular agriculture and in the promotion of sustainable food production and promote trade and investment opportunities in food and agri-based industries and encourage exchange of information, sharing of experiences, research, modern technologies and best practices, as well as through conducting capacity building activities in areas such as food and halal industry development, including various standards for halal food certification. They also agreed to encourage the sharing of best practices and capacity building programs in the areas of transport safety, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and transport regulations in aviation, land and maritime transport. They Reaffirmed the positive contributions of Southeast Asian manpower in building sustainable economic growth and development in the GCC region, and encourage collaboration to promote orderly, safe, regular, and responsible labor mobility, while strengthening cooperation to combat trafficking in persons in relation to recruitment practices. The participants agreed to promote dialogue among civilizations and cultures to enhance trust, and advance mutual understanding and greater respect for diversity, thus contributing to a culture of peace.
The statement called for promoting awareness of GCC and ASEAN traditions, arts, heritage and cultures, through cultural festivals, art exhibitions, film festivals, workshops, book fairs and other cultural events and activities, and through exchange of best practices and capacity building in the areas of museology, protection, conservation and restoration of cultural and historical heritage, as well as promotion of cultural creative industries, strengthening people-to-people ties through fostering mutual understanding, convening of networking and dialogue platforms, leadership training programs/workshops, student exchange programs and GCC and ASEAN sports initiatives. They stressed the important role that the GCC and ASEAN countries can play in hosting major sporting events, the summit welcomed the candidacy of Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
The leaders called for encouraging the exploration of cooperation to promote tourism, including heritage, cruise, sustainable and eco-tourism, medical and wellness, tourism, by undertaking benchmarking activities, joint tourism investments, and strengthening capacity-building including for MSMEs, in addition to exploring cooperation and information sharing on Information Communications Technology (ICT), especially in digital innovation, cybersecurity, data governance and cross-border data flows, and supporting both regions efforts toward a digitally-enabled economy that is open, secure, inclusive, and sustainable, and to further leverage ICT to enable innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as new technological developments including Internet of Things, 5G Networks, Artificial Intelligence and smart cities. They also called for exploring cooperation such as city-to-city partnerships between the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) and the Smart Cities of the GCC Member States by fostering exchanges of best practices to help build cities that are resilient, innovative, well-connected, and technologically advanced.
They also agreed to encourage diplomatic contact by promoting training activities for diplomats and explore collaboration between the GCC and ASEAN Member States training centers. In addition to encouraging cooperation in science, technology and innovation, technology transfer and innovation models, including through policy study, capacity building, sharing expertise, joint research activity, and development on cross-sectoral areas such as health, communicable and emerging infectious diseases, environmental management, climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, agricultural technologies, alternative energy, biodiversity conservation, food processing, and advanced materials for development of value-added products.
They called on the importance of exploring cooperation in human resource development, particularly in higher education and technical vocational education and training (TVET), addressing out-of-school children and youth, digital education, digital skills and 21st century skills development as well as efforts to improve the quality of education and training through initiatives such as skills training for students and youth, capacity building for teachers and education practitioners, provision of scholarships, research, and the sharing of good practices and experiences, and explore cooperation to promote and protect the rights and welfare of all children, through networking and exchange of policies, knowledge and best practices, and encourage collaboration in promoting gender equality and womens empowerment in the areas of eliminating all forms of violence against women, promoting women economic empowerment, as well as promoting the Women, Peace and Security agenda.
The statement stressed the importance of encouraging support to empower persons with disabilities and older persons through the implementation of the ASEAN Enabling Masterplan 2025: Mainstreaming the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Ageing: Empowering Older Persons and its regional action plan, including through sharing of knowledge and best practices, capacity building, and networking, and welcome initiatives to enhance strategies and approaches to alleviating poverty and addressing the needs of low-income households and communities, and vulnerable and marginalized groups. They also called for encouraging collaboration and coordination in building strong and sustainable recovery towards enhanced prevention, preparedness, detection and response initiatives for all health hazards and threats including effectively addressing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, zoonotic diseases, health impacts of climate change; and exploring technical and information exchanges on digital health technology and innovation, and on regional preparedness and response to public health emergencies. (MORE)
Source: Qatar News Agency