ASEAN slow in adopting haze monitoring system: Shanmugam

May Wong Today Online 18 Jan 14;

BAGAN — Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been slow in adopting the haze monitoring system, said Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam after attending the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Bagan, Myanmar, yesterday.

While ASEAN leaders had agreed to adopt a transboundary haze monitoring system at the last ASEAN Summit in Brunei, there has been limited progress since. “There has been some degree of, I won’t say resistance, but a lack of movement. And we expressed our hope that it can change, and a degree of disappointment that it hasn’t happened a bit faster,” said Mr Shanmugam.

Without giving details, Mr Shanmugam pointed out that if ASEAN continues to do nothing, individual countries would be forced to take unilateral steps to handle the matter within the confines of international law.

The haze monitoring system was developed by Singapore and aims to identify responsible parties and the causes of regional haze. It was developed after Singapore and other countries in the region were hit by a severe haze last year, which caused Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) levels to peak at a record of 400 here in June.

On ASEAN’s aim to achieve an economic community by the end of next year, Mr Shanmugam said the group has accomplished 80 per cent of its targets, but that achieving the remaining 20 per cent will not be easy.

He also commended Myanmar for hosting a successful Foreign Ministers’ Meeting as part of its first stint as ASEAN chair. “The fact that the country, which has been subject to so many sanctions, is now the chair of ASEAN shows how fully the integration has taken place,” he said.

The Foreign Ministers’ Meeting marks the official start to a series of ASEAN meetings this year, leading up to the Regional Leaders’ Summit later in the year.