Remarks at the U.S.-ASEAN Business Forum
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Siem Reap, Cambodia
July 13, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON:
(In progress.) It’s a pleasure to welcome you to the U.S.-ASEAN
Business Council Forum: Commitment to Connectivity. And we are so
honored to have three distinguished leaders here with us tonight. You
will be hearing from each of them about the importance of advancing the
ASEAN connectivity agenda and steps we can all take in government and in
business, in ASEAN and in our individual countries to advance
integration and economic engagement.
I’m very grateful to Prime Minister Hun Sen for hosting us and being
with us. Cambodia has just completed the ASEAN ministerial, and we are
grateful that you would find the time to come here and be with us, Prime
Minister.
I also want to thank President Thein Sein, who has moved his country
such a long distance in such a short period of time. And we are very
much looking forward to hearing your comments. And Prime Minister
Yingluck, it is always a pleasure to be with you and to work with you.
Thailand is our oldest ally in the region, one of our oldest allies in
the world, and we are honored that you are here.
I want to thank the ministers and ambassadors from across ASEAN who
have joined us here in this historic city. And I especially want to
thank Myron Brilliant from the Chamber of Commerce and Alex Feldman from
the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council.
And finally, a very warm welcome to all the representatives from the
private sector. Here tonight are dozens of leaders of ASEAN companies
from all over the ASEAN region, in addition to dozens of leaders from
American companies. By our count, this is the largest U.S.-ASEAN
business event ever assembled. And I assume that will be a challenge so
that the next events will be even bigger as we see the results of our
efforts.
As Myron said, you know that we are certainly elevating our
engagement across the board with Asia, and we’re paying particular
attention to ASEAN and Southeast Asia. We’re pursuing a economic
statecraft and jobs diplomacy agenda to promote sustainable growth and
prosperity across the region and, of course, we know that by doing so it
will help the countries of ASEAN, but it will also help the United
States.
Our economic ties are already strong. ASEAN and the United States are
large trading partners. Last year, U.S. exports to ASEAN exceeded $76
billion, and that was up 42 percent since 2009. We have more than twice
as much investment in ASEAN as we do in China. So there is a great deal
of potential for continuing to grow our economic activity.
We want to do more to deepen our economic partnership. For example,
with our ASEAN Single Window and other ADVANCE programs, we are working
with ASEAN to develop a fully integrated market by harmonizing customs
and improving regulatory standards. And later this fall, our trade
ministers will gather here in Siem Reap to discuss ways to advance our
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, the operating system of our
economic partnership.
I’m also very convinced that by promoting economic activity in the
region, it is not only about encouraging businesses to invest and trade,
it is also about building relationships. And the best way to do that is
to be sure that we promote a rules-based system, because the difference
between a region on the path to sustainable growth and one whose gains
will be more short term are the norms and the standards for intellectual
property protection, for predictability in setting rules, and enforcing
laws to try to ensure a level playing field for everyone.
And we want ASEAN and the Asia Pacific to be open for business to
everyone willing to work hard and make those investments. And we want
especially to encourage entrepreneurs, because after all, that’s where
the new ideas come from; that’s where the new businesses start; that’s
where small and medium-sized enterprises really get their impetus for
growth.
I gave a speech in Hong Kong last July describing what we hoped will
be a thriving economic system across the Asia Pacific. It came down to
four key attributes: openness, freedom, transparency, and fairness. And
we believe that those all go together.
So let us work and try to determine the best way to increase that
connectivity, increase those relationships, make those investments, and
really build sustainable economies, jobs here, jobs back home in the
United States, and the kind of future that we want in the 21st century for the people of the ASEAN nations.
Let me just set the stage for all three speakers. We will hear first
from the Prime Minister of Cambodia. Cambodia has achieved tremendous
economic progress during the tenure of Prime Hun Sen, and the United
States is proud of our economic partnership. The United States is the
number one importer of Cambodian-made garments – and this is a shameless
plug, but I will say it anyway – thanks to trade deals we did back in
the 1990s. (Laughter.) And those trade deals included labor and
workplace standards, so the now 350,000 Cambodians, 90 percent of whom
are young women, working in the textile industry in Cambodia have seen
tremendous advances. Now, Cambodia will see the first to say they have
more to do and they are working on that, but we want to continue to
support their economic progress.
We also want to point to one other example of an innovative
partnership with American business – General Electric is finalizing a
rice-husk biomass integrated power project, the first in the region.
What a great idea for ASEAN countries, particularly in the Lower Mekong,
to use rice husks to generate energy. So this has got great potential.
We’ll next hear from the Prime Minister of Thailand, whose leadership
has helped her country recover from the effects of the devastating
floods last year and achieve economic growth at the start of this year.
We are working to link Thai and American businesses through several
public-private partnerships: Google is helping to connect more than
100,000 small and medium-sized businesses throughout Thailand;
MasterCard is working with the Bank of Thailand to promote electronic
mobile banking training; and Coca-Cola is creating an upcoming women’s
entrepreneurship fund. So we’re very pleased that Prime Minister
Yingluck could join us.
And finally, we will hear from President Thein Sein. This week has
been a milestone in the relationship between our two countries. Just two
days ago, President Obama announced that the United States is easing
restrictions to allow more U.S. companies to do business there. And a
few months ago in Washington, I urged American businesses to invest and
to do it responsibly. Under Secretary Bob Hormats, who is here today,
will be taking the largest U.S. business delegation – over 70 businesses
– tomorrow to meet with officials, to meet with businesses, to meet
with civil society. And we’re excited by what lies ahead, and we’re very
supportive of President Thein Sein’s economic and political reforms.
And finally, I want to thank everyone from the private sector and the
organizations involved and ASEAN and my team at the State Department,
led by Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell, for understanding that
connectivity is a word that has to have meaning. And much of that
meaning comes from greater relationships between our governments,
between our private sectors, between our civil societies, and most
importantly, between and among our people.
So it’s very exciting to see everything that is happening here. And
now it is my pleasure to introduce our host this evening, Prime Minister
Hun Sen. (Applause.)
